


Rising From Burnt Ashes

by Delenn (goddessdel)



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Action/Adventure, April Showers 2015, F/M, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-05
Updated: 2005-11-05
Packaged: 2018-03-25 21:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 36,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3826465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessdel/pseuds/Delenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While trying to find out information to take down Manticore for good, Alec comes across some files, classified files, which contain information that could change all the transgenics lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rising From Burnt Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Date Started: January 10th, 2003. Date Finished: November 5th, 2005
> 
> Yes, those dates are accurate. It has not been reviewed/revised since completion, so read decade old work at your own risk.
> 
> Plays a bit loose with season 2 timing/canon.

{-The Internet, Age Of Information-}

He ran through the files quickly, eyes scanning the complicated code, fingers finding the right keys faster than most people could ever hope to achieve. _Manticore should have known that computers classes would come back to bite them in the ass._ But Alec was thankful that nobody had figured it out. _Gee, let's give hacking classes on how to get into encrypted files, and then just encrypt our own files better. No wonder Max blew up their base._

He was even more thankful that he had been the best in his class in electronics. Of course, once upon a time, Max had supposedly been the best in electronics, but he had years of training on her. "I'm in! All right," he typed furiously, "let's see what the deal is with X5-452..."

The screen was still completely in neon green code, which didn't seem to bother the transgenic running the computer. After a moment of scrutinizing the monitor, Alec found a web address and clicked in. "Bingo, what makes up those genes of yours, huh, Maxie - What the hell?"

The page had finally finished loading and instead of holding complicated gene schemes for X5-452 there was a large picture of a woman that looked a lot like Max, only younger. "Hmm," Alec was definitely curious.

Scrolling to the bottom of the page, he saw that the words X5-452 were indeed printed, just not in the context he had planned on. In large military type, the caption below the picture read 'Maria Andréa Rodriquez, carrier of X5-452, test subject 9.5.'

Alec sighed as he scrolled farther down the page, figuring that he might as well check it out while he was there. "Wrong damn database!"

Alec's original motivation was eluding him, as he couldn't remember why he cared so much that Manticore had thought him and Max would make **such** a great match. _As fun as it really would have been to study our genes,_ Alec's mind supplied sarcastically for him. And then, as he was only half-reading something about transporting the test-subjects, Alec's brain finally caught up with his eyes. "Carrier? Military, carrier, test-subject... this is-"

Transgenic speed had never been put to a better use, Alec was sure, as he finished reading, scribbled down some information, hit back to the database and typed in 'X5-494.'

{-The Lord Giveth The Cure, The Lord Taketh Away-}

One leg swung casually, but with barely restrained impatience, against the arm of the chair in a rapid, repeating rhythm. The owner of that leg wanted nothing more than to jump up and start pacing the length of the room, but she refrained.

"Max, will you stop with that incessant tapping!? If you are that agitated, go outside." Came the irritated voice from across the room, the possessor of the voice not bothering to turn and address her directly, so absorbed in the computer.

She pouted slightly, feeling like a child from his reprimand, "I can't help it, Logan! This could be big..." Max paused to hop off the arm of the chair and start her pacing route... again, "you said that we're so close!"

There was a hint of accusation in her voice that was not lost on the man at the computer. Logan was well aware that he had called Max as an emergency over four hours ago to tell her that he was an instant away from breaking the insane coding. "We _are_ that close, Max, it just takes time... I actually think that security has gone up since I called you."

Honestly, Logan would have figured that Alec's attention span was this short, but he had never thought that Max would always be moving, constantly; she could barely sit still for more than a moment. Of course, Max had insisted that when she was outside, or it was raining, she was fine. Apparently, being stuck inside for four hours on the first sunny day in a month had her a bit antsy.

For her part, Max was fighting the urge to just walk over there, push Logan out of the way, and do it herself. _Push the guy who's helping you out of the way of his own computer, aww, Max, you're such a romantic. But, God, it has been FOUR hours!_ However, despite her internal battle, Max did understand that Logan had been feeling slightly useless in the face of always dealing with her and Alec - the transgenics. She wasn't about to make him feel even more useless in something he was proud of, even if he was helping about as much as a mosquito at the moment. Even in her head that sounded harsh, and for the thousandth time in the last four hours, Max had to remind herself that she wasn't even sure that she could break into the files any quicker. "I'm sure you'll get past the new security, Logan. You always do."

"Thanks, Max," his voice was softer now, more loving, "you don't have to stay, you know. I can call you again when I really have got it." The 'it' he was referring to was a cure for the virus that stopped Max from touching him. Logan had been tracking the cure for a few weeks now, and was certain he had found the correct database, directly linked to Manticore.

Max shied away from the loving tone to his voice; it wasn't quite something she was ready to deal with right now. It had taken her a year to even consider being ready to deal with it before, and that was prior to Manticore Take Two. _Right now I can't even touch him without killing him. I'll deal with this when we get the cure._ That, however, definitely wasn't right now. "Maybe I should check into my job, ya'know, see if I still have one?"

Typically, right at the moment when Max and Logan were looking at each other awkwardly, Logan with loving, and Max with deep confusion, her pager went off. Max jumped imperceptibly, and quickly looked down at the number, half angry, half grateful at the interruption. "Shit, I knew I never should have given his cell phone back!" Max muttered as she headed toward the phone.

Logan refrained from groaning, knowing exactly who she was talking about - Alec. The same Alec whose cell phone she had 'borrowed' the week before and kept until exactly last night, having teased Alec about it the entire time. A kind of teasing that Logan wasn't exactly sure he was comfortable with, and he couldn't quite tell why. "And you're calling him why?"

Max laughed slightly as she clutched the phone to her ear, "Because, it might be important."

She chose to ignore Logan's raised eyebrow when he swiveled around to look at her, and she turned so that her back was to him, he didn't think on purpose. "Important?" He tried to keep up a teasing tone, but it seemed to be lost on the transgenic behind him.

Max laughed, but it wasn't from Logan's comment; apparently, Alec had picked up. "God, you are such a jack-ass!"

The person from the other end interrupted her rant, and Logan could tell that Max interrupted him right back, determined to take tit for tat. "No, that is not the most inventive name I can come up with, remember what I almost named you..." that sounded like a threat, not a reminder. "Ugh! Was this really the all-important reason you paged me?"

Again, there was a teasing tone to her voice that Logan missed from Max; he missed that fun side of her. The virus always reared its ugly head just when she was getting comfortable around him again. _And, come to think of it..._ "What do you mean, almost named him? I didn't know you named him."

Max turned wide eyes on him, and even with human hearing Logan knew that the other end of the phone was silent as well. Max was deciding what to say when Alec must have made a joke, because she laughed, looking relieved. "Pig!" she smiled slightly, sadly, at Logan, "One second, Logan..."

She rolled her eyes at the phone in response to whatever Alec had just said, obviously forgetting that he couldn't see her. Or maybe it was for Logan's benefit, he couldn't tell. "Okay, be right there," she hung up the phone and started toward the door, "Sorry Logan, he's actually got something important to say, I know, God hates me. Anyway," she turned back to Logan and winked, "gotta blaze."

Having successfully used her patented catch phrase, Max was out the door in a few steps. It slammed with a loud bang, leaving Logan staring at an empty room. Taking a deep breath, Logan turned back toward his computer and typed furiously, "That was... strange..."

{-Don't Kill The Messenger-}

"So, explain to me again, why the hell you look like a cat who ate a canary?" Max questioned suspiciously, hands on her hips, the door swung wide behind her.

Alec's grin got wider, "I want you to say it first," he had the air of someone who was utterly and totally convinced of his own importance. Not unusual for Alec, but this was definitely cockiness at its complete worst, a type of God-complex the likes of which Max had never before observed in her fellow transgenic.

She supposed, since he had given her a proper excuse to get out of sitting at Logan's for another four hours, she could be a little patient. _God help me, if he drags this out I swear..._ "Say what, Smart-Alec?"

Alec knew he was being a smug bastard, he wasn't quite that oblivious, but he really enjoyed the reaction it got out of Max. She was so funny and gorgeous and deadly all at the same time when she got angry that he couldn't help but try to provoke her when he had the chance. "Tell me I'm God."

She was going to smack him, wipe that annoying smirk right off his face. The only thing that stopped her from punching him out, right then and there, was that he didn't look like he was doing this just to piss her off. Sure, he was definitely making this longer than it needed to be, but Alec had been serious when he said he needed to talk to her. _Must be some good information if he thinks he's going to get away with being this much of an asshole!_ "Fine," she exaggerated her words like one of the blonde ditzy girls that always followed Alec around, acting like he really was God. "You're God, Alec, I mean, wow, you're just... brilliant like that!"

Alec jumped up from the chair he had been reclining in, and immediately his expression was one of excitement, "You really need to work on believability, Maxie... you're wearing way too much to play that part." He waited a beat for Max to roll her eyes, and then continued, "But I'll let it go this time. What would you say if I told you I'd hacked into Manticore's database?"

Max pursed her lips in barely concealed amusement; he looked like some little kid in a candy shop and had about the same attention span. "I'd say, Logan's gonna kill you."

Alec's face fell, he'd expected 'brilliant, genius, insane, idiot,' or an assortment of Max's other favorite terms for him, not... "Huh?"

And now Max couldn't help but laugh, the look on his face was perfectly priceless, she really loved doing that to him - getting his mind all revved up on one track, then pulling the proverbial carpet out from under his feet - just priceless. "Logan, he's been trying to get into that database all day."

Now it was Alec's turn to roll his eyes and he made a half snorting sound that suggested exactly what he thought of Logan's hacking abilities. "Wait, contain your enthusiasm, before you compliment me any further, I must make a confession." Max humored him with a look of rapt attention, "I actually hacked into the wrong database."

Noticing his sheepish expression, Max took pity on him and reduced her full-blown laugh to a slight chuckle, stepping out of the doorway and patting Alec on the back, "Gee, maestro that was really smart."

Alec laughed, but shut his door and led Max over to a table, holding up a notepad triumphantly. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see you get into any Manticore database, and then we'll talk."

But Max totally ignored his comment, her attention focused on the piece of paper in his hand, her voice serious, if slightly curious. "What did you find?" There were millions of things she could think of finding in a Manticore file, some good, some very bad.

Alec separated the two pieces of paper and handed the topmost one, facedown, to the other transgenic, his voice without any hint of amusement. "Why don't you look and see."

Max flipped the piece of paper over and her breath caught in her throat as she saw what was scrawled there in Alec's slightly sloppy writing. _Maria Andréa Rodriquez; test subject 9.5, Manticore X-series carrier of X5-452, currently located at Shadle Hills Mental Institution, Blueville, Washington._ Then the lump in her throat receded enough to allow speech, and Max turned wide eyes on Alec, "It's... you've found her... my mother..."

{-Be Kind, Please Rewind-}

When Max just blankly stared at him for more than a minute, Alec made a little nodding gesture, swallowed the lump in his own throat, and sighed, "Yeah, your mother, my mother, all of them are there."

Max was sure that she hadn't really believed it until right that moment; that she was afraid to believe it and then wake up and hear Logan telling her she had fallen asleep on his couch. "It's just... wow," actually it was a lot more than that, but Max couldn't even begin to find the words... she'd been searching for this for such a long time.

Alec nodded again, knowing that he would remember this moment for years to come; he hadn't quite dared to believe himself either, one of the reasons he had called Max over first thing. "I guess... I mean, everyone Manticore had 'problems' with, they shipped them out to the same institutions, and then moved them about a couple times... that is, apparently, Maria and Emily, my mother, they're both at... and I thought..." Alec couldn't quite believe he was struggling so hard with the right words, "Hell. Let's take a week off and go get them, prove that Manticore's the ones who are crazy." Alec wasn't sure what had hit him until he realized that Max was hugging him, holding him so tight he figured a human would have broken bones by now.

In a few years, Max was sure she would have some perfectly valid, and not crazy-sounding, reason for why she, at that moment, never wanted to let go of Alec. Though, for right now, she was satisfied with the explanation that he had just made it all so easy. Something so hard and scary, and he had just assumed they would get through it together, go together. He had given her a stupid piece of paper that would change her life, was her life, and it was just...simple. Of course, Max was sure that her reason in a few years would also be more articulate. "God, oh God, Alec..."

Alec held Max just about as tightly as she was holding him, and stroked her hair with one hand, the hand that had dropped his piece of paper. He remembered finding out, as a little kid, about his brother, his twin brother that he had never seen. Alec hadn't thought it had affected him beyond the time in PsyOps it cost him, but when he had gotten out into the real world and talked about Ben with someone who had known him... it had been so solid and unbelievable. Manticore had always said that they all were family, but real family, flesh and blood family instead of transgenic family was something he missed now. But he didn't like depressing thoughts, didn't want to let the moment stretch, knowing too well the memories it would plunge both transgenics into. "Hey, now Maxie, if you don't cry, I'll give you a pocket full of sunshine."

Max pulled back from Alec, wiping at her nose self-consciously, she hadn't really realized that she had been crying. "When do you want to leave?" Her voice had regained some confidence, and she was thankful to Alec for stopping possible memories before they could appear.

Alec grinned, his manner and gestures back to what they normally were - confident, like usual. For example, he certainly wasn't acting like someone who had just held Max and reminisced about his childhood and their shared joy over finding their parents. "Now."

Yeah, he was definitely the same-old Alec again.

{-It's Always Hardest To Say Goodbye-}

Max was making the most of her speed as she rushed around her apartment. Clothes were thrown onto her bed then, if they passed inspection, into the large bag she had chosen for packing. T-shirts, jeans, normal things - clothing she could move in; mostly black. Just incase Alec decided to pull any stupid stunts that, knowing him, she was sure would happen. "OC, have you seen my jacket? I was sure I wore it today!"

Original Cindy was standing in the doorway, a bemused expression on her face, as she filed her perfectly manicured nails. "You did, Max. Probably left it at Roller-Boy's."

"Ohhh," Max moaned as she grabbed the necessities, like a toothbrush, "shit! I did leave it at Logan's."

Original Cindy smirked slightly; she was greatly enjoying Max's somewhat frantic packing. Since the moment Max had, literally, hit the door on her way in, she had been running around like a chicken with her head cut off. "OC just told you that, right Boo?"

Max successfully seemed to have gathered her belongings, and she zipped up her bag quickly, smiling as she turned to her roommate. "I think I have everything. Time? Alec said he'd be back in ten minutes..."

This, of course, was Max's reason to try out for the world's fastest packing Olympics. Both transgenics had decided that every moment they waited to leave was a moment totally wasted. Original Cindy put down her nail file on Max's ransacked dresser and held her arms out wide. "Guess this is goodbye, huh?"

Max laughed as she hugged her best friend, having caught sight of the clock and realizing that she had exactly two minutes to spare. "Never goodbye. Besides, this is just a quick trip!"

Original Cindy nodded, releasing her friend and motioning toward the door, "Uh-huh, OC believes you, Boo. Now get your ass out that door before Alec comes up here looking for you, and OC has to put the smack-down on both your asses!"

Max laughed, but humored her roommate as she always did when Original Cindy threatened to take her down. As she rushed out the door, bag banging against her hip, Max called back fondly, "I better jet, catch ya later!"

Original nodded as she watched the door shut, listening to the rapid sounds of Max barreling down the stairs. _Everything else be damned, Max is gonna go get her Momma. And heaven help anyone in her path._

Max got outside only to find that, despite her efforts, it had officially been eleven minutes and Alec was already waiting on his own motorcycle. "Ugh," she swung onto her Ninja, haphazardly parked half on the curb, "sorry."

Alec chuckled slightly as he revved up his bike, which was a relatively new acquirement and he loved it almost as much as Max loved her Ninja. "What took you so long, Maxie?"

For his efforts, Max graced Alec with a steely glare, tempted to flip him off and shout 'none of your business!' Instead, she settled for the truth. "Lost my jacket."

Attention having been brought to Max's infamous leather jacket, Alec did notice that she wasn't wearing it, and heaved a sigh. "So, did you find it, or are we going on some wild goose chase?"

Having successfully secured her bag of belongings, Max started her bike and turned to face Alec. _This is HIS fault!_ "I left it at Logan's when you called me."

Alec sighed, _Of course, she somehow manages to make this MY fault, when she was the one being scatterbrained._ Muttering half under his breath, "Sure this isn't just some excuse to say bye to Lover-Boy?"

"No," Max replied, her voice in that sickeningly sweet tone that always told Alec he was going to regret being born, "this is an excuse to get you and Logan in the same room. So you can explain how your hacking into the wrong database jacked up Manticore's security and is keeping Logan from finding a cure."

Max had that no nonsense 'you WILL apologize,' look in her eyes that made Alec groan. "Shit, Max, do I have to?" At her happy nod he almost growled, "Fine. If Logan thinks he's getting an apology though, he can kiss my-"

"Alec, shut up so we can get moving," Max called out as she kicked her bike off and roared down the road, leaving Alec to catch up.

{-Nobody Likes To Say Sorry-}

When push came to shove, Alec absolutely hated Logan, half the time even on his good days. But to have to say _sorry_ to Logan... well, Alec was decidedly angry over his birth right now. Or maybe just mad at the woman whose fault all this was. Alec fixed a cold glare on Max as they rode the elevator in silence, although he could tell she wanted to snicker. _Bitch!_ "If you laugh, you know I'll kill you, right?"

Max gave her fellow transgenic a cheeky grin as she stepped out of the elevator and jogged toward Logan's door, "Oh, Alec, I'm not the one you have to worry about laughing!"

"Max," came the almost begging reply from a panic-stricken Alec, "please don't make me do this!"

Trying to be patient, Max replied, "Look, I love you for hacking into that database, but Logan still deserves an apology. Do you understand me?"

Catching Max before she could enter the penthouse, Alec searched her eyes and realized, _she really didn't want to see him before we left._ "Fine, Maxie, but if he laughs, you better hold me back!"

Conceding this point, Max shook him off her arm and pushed open the door, a forced cheery expression on her face. "Logan? I forgot my jacket and I've come to pick it up."

Logan spun around from where he was still sitting in his computer chair and his smile faded when Alec entered behind Max. "So, what was so important?"

Halfway through grabbing her jacket off of a discarded chair, Max stiffened slightly at the accusing tone. "Alec has something to tell you."

Alec's eyes widened as the conversation was abruptly handed to him. He knew he shouldn't mention their road trip until Max did, but he wasn't sure how else to explain his hacking to Logan. "Uh... right... Logan how's the hacking?"

"Fine," was the starched reply, and Logan could be seen clenching his fists slightly, a sign that the hacking was not going any more favorably than the last four hours.

Alec took a step forward then thought better of it and stopped, quickly rushing out, "I-may-have-hacked-into-a-Manticore-database-I'm-sorry-if-security-is-high."

As soon as the sentence was out of Alec's mouth, Max jerked up with her jacket and nodded toward Logan, "I've gotta go out of town, I'll catch you in a few days, Logan. Alec, let's go before I decide to let him punch you."

While Logan was still in too much surprise to take her up on that offer, Alec hurried after the retreating transgenic, half growling-half teasing, "What ever you say Sergeant Maxie."

"Alec," Max called back as they both exited the apartment, "Shut the hell up."

Logan managed to call out half-heartedly, "Bye, Max," but what he really wanted to know was what trip she was going on and why it seemed Alec was going with. Logan was not a happy hacker at the moment.

{-Road Trips Rule-}

Getting through the sector check had been pathetically easy with their Jam Pony passes, but now Alec and Max were faced with a much more difficult problem; getting something to eat.

After a couple hours on the road, both transgenics were hungry, feeling in need of a big glass of milk, and just a little sore from the bikes. Motorcycles weren't exactly conducive to long distance travel. However, since the USA had become a third world country, there wasn't such a thing as fast food restaurants, and most of the seedy bars they had passed so far would hardly give them a chance to eat with all the fights going on.

Rather abruptly, Alec swerved a hard left and Max followed him down a side road, unsure as to what he had seen, but soon she heard the telltale sounds of an old diner. Heaving a great sigh of relief when the building finally came into view, Max parked her baby beside Alec's bike and hopped off, taking a moment to stretch sore muscles. "Good call."

Alec half nodded, his ears still slightly ringing from the wind while on the bike - they had hit huge winds about an hour before. "So, what do you say, Maxie? Wanna see if they have good old fashioned fries, a burger, and milk?"

"I say that if we're not in the building in five seconds, I'm going to kill something. Brutally." Max was only barely teasing as her stomach growled again and she made a beeline for the old building.

Alec dutifully followed, listening to his own stomach, "Hey, who am I to argue with that logic?" He knew better than to stand between a transgenic and their food - he was one, after all, and he knew how ugly it could get.

The bells on the door jingled as they pushed it open and a middle-aged waitress promptly came over and took them to their seats. The leather was ripped and rugged, but neither cared, and the waitress didn't bother to hand them menus. "You kids know what you want?"

Quickly Max nodded and spoke, at this point daring Alec to question when she ordered for both of them, "Two cheeseburgers, two glasses of milk, and two sides of fries, please."

However, Alec was in no mood to question her, and would have ordered the same thing anyway. He flashed the waitress his most charming grin and hoped it would get their food delivered faster. "Thanks..."

The waitress smiled at the two energetic youths, "I'm Wanda, and I think old Eddie back there just might be able to pull that off, Honey. You two just hold on one bit and I'll be back."

Max raised an eyebrow teasingly as she watched the woman scurry off at a pace she obviously wasn't accustomed to using. "What can I say, I'm impressed. Your shamelessness has actually come in handy. Who knew you liked older women?"

Sneering at her comment, Alec ran a hand through his hair and stretched out on his side of the booth, "Ha, ha, Maxie, our food's coming quicker, isn't it?"

Not unexpectedly, Max jumped up, pausing to pull Alec up with her, ignoring his slight protest. "C'mon, we can explore while we wait for our food, or at least be not sitting."

Gesturing to the small square encompassment of the room, Alec asked, "Explore what, Max? I wouldn't mind standing though," he looked down and grinned, "Hey, it's a checked floor. If you touch the black ones you lose!"

Max looked at Alec as though he were insane, "Are you kidding me? Only step on the white checks, my God, Alec, are you five!?"

"Loosen up, Max, it's something to do; I'm bored, and I figure anything else we do will get us thrown out!" Alec winked suggestively to mark his comment, even though he meant a fight of some sort.

Wanda returning laden down with their food and moving very carefully so as not to topple it all, saved Alec from Max's impending wrath. They quickly scrambled back into their seats so Wanda could set everything down, and once she had, she heaved a great sigh. "There you go, Honey. I'll be by the door when you're ready to pay."

Once again, Alec grinned toward Wanda, nodding quickly toward the food that he couldn't wait to devour. "Thanks, Wanda..." which made the woman blush slightly before she rushed off.

"Alec," came the short reply from across the table, "if you don't start eating, I'm stealing your meal."

Having all the incentive he needed, Alec promptly forgot about teasing the waitress and smacked Max's hand as it encroached the border of his fries, "You have your own food, back off!"

Max giggled slightly and withdrew her hand as they both began eating at a reasonable pace, no conversation involved. After a few minutes had passed, between bites of her sandwich, Max quickly said, "I'm glad we're doing this together," before hurrying back to her meal.

Nodding, Alec pretended not to notice the slightly nervous tone to Max's voice, "Me too, Maxie."

"Don't CALL ME THAT!"

{-So Close, So Scary-}

It was well past dark by the time the two transgenics reached Blueville and after a not-so-friendly debate, they decided to stay somewhere overnight and go to the hospital in the morning. There were two reasons for this final decision; as Max had pointed out, visiting hours were probably over, and, as neither wanted to admit, they were nervous.

The kind, if feeble, old lady at the Bed & Breakfast handed Max a key and smiled at them both, "Most folks come through here are early birds - breakfast's at seven."

Swinging their bags over their shoulders, the anxious couple walked up the stairs of the old Victorian house toward the room where they would be staying the night. Opening the door, Max was shocked out of her slight stupor of just being so close to finding her mother, when she noticed the lone king bed. Pushing the door open wider, Max announced, "I call the bed."

Alec had to suppress a laugh, his eyes never leaving the bed, "Who's five now? You can't just call something."

Two duffle bags dropped on the hallway floor simultaneously and the carriers of said bags made a mad dash through the door, determined not to lose custody of the very comfy looking bed.

Max had got a head start and was just about there when Alec grabbed her by the waist and instead of pulling her back, ended up propelling the two forward. Their bodies hit the bed at exactly the same time, Max squirming to get out of Alec's grasp and find a way to say she had got there first. "Alec, GET OFF!"

"I think we have a tie," Alec replied smugly, not budging an inch from his position half on top of Max, half on the bed, because he was afraid he would topple onto the floor and lose his claim.

Craning her neck around to look at Alec, Max gave him an incredulous look, not ready to admit defeat quite yet. "Are you kidding me? There can't be a tie, Alec; we are NOT sharing a bed. NOW, GET OFF!"

Patiently, Alec began to state his case, trying to inconspicuously move more on the bed so that there was no way he would fall on his butt and look like an idiot. "Look, Max, we both got here at the same time, hence we have a tie. And if you want me to 'get off,'" he changed tones to a more teasing one, "make me."

Max was silent for a moment as she considered this, as much as she didn't want to admit it, they did have a tie. Besides, being stomach down on a really soft feather _Comforter?_ was not conducive to getting Alec to let the hell go of her. Quickly, Max flipped them over so that she was on top and Alec was balancing precariously on the edge of the bed. Grinning wickedly, she slipped out of his grip with a small wave. "Bad move."

Alec only had a second to realize what was happening before he had toppled over and was sprawled out on the floor, with a decidedly sore butt. Looking up at Max, who was rolling around on the bed in a fit of giggles, he gave his best puppy face and stated, "Now you've injured me; there's absolutely no way I can sleep on the couch in such condition... you have to share."

Going with her first instinct, Max stuck out her tongue; still fighting back laughter at both Alec falling off the bed and the innocent look he was giving her. "Lookie here, Mister, I don't care if your butt hurts-"

However, true to Max's earlier assessments of Alec, he was never innocent, so while she was all high and mighty, he reached up and pulled her off the bed, effectively cutting off her speech. She landed with a thump beside him, making it hard for Alec not to laugh at her pouting look. "What can I say; when I was a kid I learned how to share, unlike some people."

It took Max a moment to consider the fact that they were both sprawled out on the floor with sore butts, and that their bags were still out in the hall where the door was wide open. Hopping up, Max rubbed her now sore ass, reached out her other hand to haul Alec up, and sighed. "Fine, we'll share, but you better not move one inch out of your side of the bed... I've been known to be violent in my sleep if my personal bubble is invaded. And you never mention that I stuck my tongue out at you."

Nodding, Alec mock-saluted Max, then jogged back out to the hall to grab their bags. Max was forced to duck the bags that sailed right by where her head had been and onto the bed, and she glared angrily at a grinning Alec. He shrugged, walking back in and shutting the door, "I think we have a deal."

{-Hello Strangers-}

Supposedly, they were waiting outside so that they could check out security and escape routes in case... _In case what? In case anything, I guess,_ Max mused. However, all the information that was gatherable the two transgenics already knew, and they were both aware that going inside was the next step. Still, they waited.

Max nervously fiddled with the room key in her jeans pocket as they sat on their bikes outside of the prison-like building. It was eerily similar to Manticore with the high barbwire fence, guard towers, and security everywhere. She cast a tentative glance over at her partner in crime, who was looking just about as anxious as she felt. Despite her trepidations over the bed sharing the day before, Alec had not only stayed on his side of the bed, but also placed a protective pillow wall between them because he _had a feeling she might kick._ "Maybe now isn't the best time."

"Okay, that's it," strong arms encircled Max's waist, ignoring her squeaked protest, and lifted her off the bike, setting her down on her feet. "Let's go."

Sparing him a half thankful glance, Max waited until Alec caught up with her before smacking the back of his head. "Alec, this is a big deal, could you be serious?"

Alec gave her a wounded look, "I am being serious, Maxie. If it wasn't visiting hours we would have never been let in, and if we sit out here any longer someone is bound to get suspicious."

"So what are we going to do?" came the tentative reply, "just walk in and ask to see them?"

Nodding, Alec confirmed, "That's the plan, then we meet them, grab 'em, and run like hell."

She whacked him again for good measure, though she couldn't help but appreciate him at least attempting to make things easier. "Run like hell, got it. Okay, I'm ready."

Pulling open the large doors, they were met with the overwhelming smell of bleach, security guards, and a small desk reading 'check in.' Reverting to full soldier mode, Alec strode toward the desk confidently with Max behind him. "Hello, I'm Alec, and this is my friend Max. We called earlier about visiting our mothers, Emily Carrin Montgomery and Maria Andréa Rodriquez respectively."

The nurse checked through some paperwork quickly and nodded toward them, "IDs?" When two visitors had handed them over, she nodded, "All right, please follow me."

They followed the nurse through the halls, both edgy but neither showing it. Everything was so cold and sterile, it made Max want to barf and cry at the very same time. She was going to find her mother inside these puke green walls, and it made her shiver. She vowed that if it was the last thing she did, she'd get her mother out of there.

As they rounded another sharp corner the nurse turned to them and announced, "You have perfect timing, it's recess," before turning back to see where she was going.

Max had to physically restrain Alec from punching the woman; she placed her hands on his arms in an effort to get them both to unclench their fists, as she was feeling rather violent herself. _Recess?! Treating them like they're first graders when they're what, thirty-something, not even forty? Of course, I guess it's better that they get some free time, not like Manticore..._ Forcibly, she cut that train of thought off.

Finally reaching the end of the seemingly continuous hallways, Max found herself holding onto Alec for a different reason as the nurse led them into a large room with high, barred windows. Women barely twenty through 'til almost fifty milled around in a somewhat dazed manner in hospital gowns and robes. Max gasped out quietly, "All from Manticore, I'd bet."

Alec was rendered slightly speechless at the sheer prospects of so many Manticore mothers, one of which was his own. The nurse saved them from introspection, however, by curtly announcing, "Montgomery; Rodriquez; you have visitors," turning back toward a wide-eyed Max and Alec she shrugged, "call one of the guards when you're done," and walked off.

The transgenics paid her no heed, too absorbed by the two youngish women rising with confused looks and coming toward them, ignored by the rest of the women. The dark, curly haired one reached them first, seemingly unaware of her startling resemblance to Max. A second later, Emily reached them, slightly more alert and placing her hand on Maria's shoulder gently, "Who are you?"

Pulling Max's death grip off of his arms, Alec shakily spoke, "Hi, Emily, I'm Alec, your son," turning quickly to Maria he added, seeing Max still somewhat frozen, "And Ms. Rodriquez, this is Max, your daughter."

{-They Told Us We Were Crazy, Crazy About You-}

"Oh my God," Emily placed her hands on either side of Alec's face and looked up at him, tears in her eyes, before yanking him into a hug which he returned carefully, "oh my God."

Likewise, Max found herself pulled into the embrace of her crying mother, but Max gave up all sense of dignity and bust into tears along with her, working hard enough just telling herself not to hug her mom too tightly so she wouldn't suffocate her. Maria managed to choke out, "They told us we were crazy, that place hadn't happened, I didn't have you."

Refusing to be at a loss for words, Alec - not letting go of his mother - asked, "So, I guess you could tell us our birthdays?"

Tempted to smack him, Max instead found herself sniffling slightly as she had never even thought about her birthday or that finding her mother meant she could find that too. "We've... we've been looking for you for so long," unconsciously adding Alec in with the _we._

Looking up, Maria smiled at Max and gently disentangled her from the hug, "We should sit down, away from the guards."

Letting go of Alec, Emily led the so far unnoticed group to a couch in the far corner, motioning for Alec and Max to sit even though the two older women stayed standing. "You're both so beautiful. How did... what was it like, growing up there?"

The seated pair cringed and Max laid her head on Alec's shoulder tiredly as she said, "It was... hard. Being soldiers always is. But you all, they took away your lives, don't you want-"

Whispering in Max's ear so the others couldn't hear, Alec said quickly, "I say it's time for a new plan, take out the guards, get everybody out, blow it up, and then run like hell." When Max nodded he continued, louder, so that their parents could hear, but not the guards, "They'll be lots of time for us all to catch up after we bust you out of here."

Exchanging nervous glances, Emily and Maria shook their heads, Maria whispering sadly, "There's too many guards, we've tried; it'll never work."

Maria bent forward and brushed a stray piece of Max's hair out of her eyes, "Just seeing you, just seeing you is more than we could have asked for. Any of us."

Shrugging off the painful flashbacks of her childhood, Max smiled tersely, "What can we say? Manticore didn't give you all those vitamins for nothing. We've got it covered; gather everybody together and wait for our signal."

Flashing his infamous grin to reassure their mothers, Alec nodded toward the other women who were still oblivious. "C'mon, trust us, it'll be fun, and if we screw up there's nothing that you can get blamed for."

Wiping at a few stray tears, Emily ruffled Alec's hair affectionately, whispering conspiratorially, "I know, you two will be the miracles we have been waiting for."

The two older women stepped back sadly and turned to assemble their friends, a new plot of escape on their lips. Their last words before they walked away were, "Be careful," as they cast worried glances toward the guards.

Slowly standing back up, Max brushed off remaining tears and smiled at Alec, "What do you say we go kick some butt?"

"I'd say," Alec drawled slowly, "last one there has to figure out how we hide almost a hundred women in this town."

{-Escape and Evade-}

"Everybody DOWN!" The transgenics half watched the women they were looking out for and half watched the waking guards and running evil-nurses.

There was a mad dash as Max herded women of many ages as far to the other side of the parking lot as she could. Even before everyone was to safety, she called out, "Are you sure you know what you're doing? I was always good with electronics."

Once all the women were relatively far enough away to not be hurt, Alec held up the last two wires, "Of course I know what I'm doing, Maxie," slammed them together and made a running dash and dive with the five seconds he knew he had.

The resounding explosion almost knocked the building right off of its foundation and sent up billows of flames and smoke much higher than the five-story hospital/hell-dimension. Alec was completely submerged in smoke, and even Max was having a hard time seeing, but sure enough, the building didn't fall. Cautiously, Max called out, "Alec?"

Slowly the smoke started to clear and it became obvious that the entrances to the building were all securely blocked off by stray debris. Whoever said it was safest to be in doorways incase of an explosion or earthquake hadn't met the arson skills of the two X5s.

Alec hauled himself up from where he'd half jumped but mostly been thrown by the blast. Dusting off his jeans and jacket, Alec walked through the smoke to where he could hear Max yelling at him. Emerging to sight, he gave an obviously agitated Max his most shit-eating grin, "Whew, now that was an explosion! Told you I was good with bombs."

Max narrowed her eyes, motioning for the mothers to stay back and stalking toward Alec without a word. Once she was only a few inches from the other transgenic, she studied him closely. "Are you hurt?" At a shake of Alec's head she lashed out, landing a hard punch to his arm. "Good."

"Oww," Alec moaned, rubbing his arm and his cocky look immediately melting into one that slightly resembled a confused child. "What was that for?"

Careful that the mothers still couldn't see them perfectly and definitely couldn't hear them, Max hissed, "You could have gotten killed," sighing dramatically she motioned for them to get out of there, "c'mon, Smart-Alec, the cops'll be here soon. We better jet."

Sticking his tongue out at Max's retreating back, Alec nonetheless followed her, already able to hear the emergency bell going off inside of the hospital. Still rubbing his sore arm, Alec prepared himself to keep nearly a hundred women out of sight and out of trouble before they could get out of this town. "Hope your plan is brilliant, Max."

{-A Simple Plan-}

Rubbing her temples, Max winced as she felt a headache coming on, "I swear to God, if you make me explain the plan one more time..."

Feeling his own headache coming on, Alec cautiously pointed out, "Look, I'm not exactly the best candidate to be mom-sitting; you of all people should know that. Why can't I go vehicle hunting?"

"For the last time," Max enunciated every part of the plan carefully if quietly so as not to disrupt the women huddled nearby. "First, you got to blow up the building, so you should be the one stuck watching our escapees. Second, in this town, I think it's not very likely that the car salesperson will be a woman and we don't want to arouse suspicion with a bribe. Finally, we already know that the person who runs the B&B is a woman, and a spaced out one at that, so all you have to do is make sure none of our friends run off." Taking a deep breath, Max asked, "Got it?"

Laughing, Alec admitted, "Actually I got all that when you first mentioned the plan an hour ago, I was just seeing how many times I could make you say it," skillfully he danced out of the reach of her fists or feat and offered a half-sincere grin, "it'll go off without a hitch, Maxie."

Max advanced a step and watched with satisfaction as Alec took a subsequent step back, "Would you stop calling me that?" She had to fight to keep a smile off of her face at the thought that he was terrified of her hitting him again.

Offering a small wave, Max turned and hopped on her bike, gunning the engine before racing off, leaving Alec to the task of 'mom-sitting' before he could protest again. Sighing, Alec called out, "All right, ladies, let's get moving. Small groups, stay discreet, and we'll be out of this damn town in no time."

Standing at the head of a group that appeared to be the 'lead' moms, Emily approached her son, eyeing him carefully, "You're sure that you're okay?"

Managing a small smile, Alec nodded, squirming slightly under the penetrating glare, "Perfect. Look, you already asked this."

Reaching up tentatively, Emily ruffled Alec's hair with affection, walking with him toward the small Bed & Breakfast, "I know I asked after the fire, I meant with getting everyone out of here, it seems like a lot of work and I don't even know the plan!"

Motioning the others to follow them, Alec tried to discreetly fix his hair so as not to ruin his bad-boy image but avoid offending his mother. _My mother, damn, still hard to imagine._ He had to refrain from spouting CO-gibberish and hand-signals that had been drilled into him by Manticore for missions.

 _This isn't a Manticore mission, this isn't a Manticore mission, screw Manticore._ Alec found that if he kept repeating that it seemed to suppress the urges. "Piece of cake, Max and I do stuff like this all the time. Okay, so not so much like this, breaking our mothers and their friends out of a Manticore induced hell-hole, but escape and evade stuff."

Emily looked like she was about to say something, but then the door swung open and the immediate problem became not arousing the suspicion of the older woman at the front desk, something that was easier said than done with roughly a hundred women in tow. Smiling a little, she looked up at Alec, "Here goes nothing, huh?"

{-Daytime Trials and Slumbers-}

It had taken nearly three hours for Max to convince the car dealer that she was starting a bussing company and successfully buy three old passenger busses from before the pulse.

As compared to the hour it took her to painstakingly load her baby onto a bus and drive said monstrosity to the Bed & Breakfast before unloading her bike, speeding back to the car lot, and repeating the process two more times.

Needless to say, the transgenic was tired and in bad need of a huge glass of milk by the time she was finished. Greatly envying Alec's ability to be inside their room and therefore rest, she carefully parked her bike beside his and entered the hotel.

Only to be met with the fact that somehow Alec had convinced the manager to rent the entire place out to the hundred some women in their group. There were sleeping women everywhere, rooms were locked, and couches in the day room were full. Apparently the place was bigger than it looked though because everyone seemed to be comfortable somewhere out of sight from the main area.

Quickly, Max made her way up to the room her and Alec had rented the day before and swung open the door. Emily and Maria were occupying the bed that she recalled fighting with Alec for previously. _Looks like neither of us gets it this time,_ and Alec himself was sprawled out on the floor, apparently passed out.

Being very quiet, Max shut the door and sunk down next to Alec, settling herself next to him and slipping off her jacket to use as a pillow. Checking that the heavy curtains were shutting out the sunlight, Max closed her eyes, muttering, "Night, Alec."

Her voice startled him, apparently because Alec had been attempting to stay mostly awake waiting for her. "Max?" Turning slightly, he assured himself that it was indeed Max who had entered the room, "Right, back to sleep."

Allowing a slight giggle to escape, Max opened one eye and surveyed Alec; he looked tired and dusty. "Tough day babysitting?"

Alec snorted, not opening his eyes even though he knew Max was watching him. "You have no idea."

"Alec," her near whisper had dropped to something so quiet that even with his transgenic hearing Alec had to strain to understand her, "I'm glad you didn't blow yourself up today."

Rolling onto his side, Alec used an elbow to prop himself up so he was facing Max. Grinning, he asked, "What, and leave you to have all the fun with car salesmen and delusional women? Nah."

Moving to punch Alec, Max misjudged her angle and only ended up pushing him onto his back but one of his hands caught hers, pulling her along with him in their partial roll. The end result was that Alec was lying on his back and Max was half lying on her side with her head pillowed on his chest and her arm across his waist.

Realizing that Alec was a lot more comfortable than the floor, Max reached down with her free hand to put her jacket under his head and smiled into his dust-covered jean jacket, "Shut up and go to sleep, we'll need to be up early."

Far from complaining, Alec did as he was told and settled his head on Max's soft leather jacket even though he knew he was going to be the sorer one in the morning.

{-A Long Clear Road-}

"Oh," Maria gasped, hands white-knuckled and clutching the seat back in front of her. "What are they doing?"

Not taking her eyes off of the road and the big vehicle she was steering, Emily tried to reassure her dear friend, "Maria, I'm sure they know what they're doing."

Emily had been one of the three women that had volunteered to drive the busses when Max had asked that very early morning, and was now happily behind the wheel for the first time in twenty some years. Not an ideal arrangement, but it would do.

Visible from the front of the bus were Alec and Max, both on their motorcycles, who were more or less circling the three slower moving vehicles. Complete with wheelies, near touching-the-road turns, swerving in front of one another, and otherwise scaring their mothers to death but having the time of their lives.

As if to validate Emily's statement, Max sped past the bus they were in, lifting up one hand in a wave before grabbing her handlebars with both hands again as she had to swerve to avoid crashing with Alec who had just turned right in front of her. Neither transgenic appeared phased though, as they continued their insane driving.

The whole thing was deeply unnerving Maria who had never been the greatest of drivers even in her prime and couldn't even begin to comprehend the reflexes that the transgenics possessed. "I still don't like this, what if a car comes?"

"Around here?" Emily laughed, "Come on, Maria, you've watched enough news with me to know it's near impossible to get sector passes out of big cities, and nobody cares to. Strange town filled roads like this are car-less and have been," she mentally calculated, "for at least the last hour and a half."

Still gripping the chair, Maria muttered, "If our babies crash and die, I'm blaming you for not stopping them."

"Besides," Emily continued cheerfully, "I'm more worried about us. With the crashing and burning, I mean."

At this Maria had to join in her friend's laughter, although she was glad that nobody else on the bus appeared to have heard their driver's comments, as she figured it would alarm some who didn't know Emily so well. However Maria and Emily had been instant friends when they'd first been institutionalized and were still just as close twenty years later. "If there's an uprising on the bus about you being driver, I'm not saving you from the wrath of the masses."

Keeping her eyes carefully trained on the road despite the snail's pace all the busses were crawling along at, allowing for the ride to take probably double what it had taken the two transgenics to get there, Emily acknowledged, "Fine, I'll stop joking about this thing toppling over. But only if you stop worrying about Alec and Max, they do seem to know what they're doing."

Grinning at the other woman, Maria managed to make a great show of releasing the chair and setting her hands on her lap, even though Alec and Max were currently out of sight, having sped up the hill they were now slowly ascending. "You've got a deal."

{-Roadside Rage and Games-}

The sight of tall decaying buildings covered in graffiti and obviously created pre-pulse when there was still an economy to support such structures depressed most people. This was why formerly popular cities like Seattle were not the favorite thing for most people to see after a long day's drive.

However, at this moment, Alec was sure he had never seen anything nicer than the sector checks and perpetual grayness that was Seattle. Because Seattle meant home and home meant his bed and... "Hey, **Max** ," he had to yell over the motorcycle.

Giving him a nasty glare for both swerving in front of her and having interrupted the calm that the roar of her bike always lulled her into, Max steered closer to Alec reluctantly. "What? This couldn't wait until after we stop?"

Motioning to the side of the road, Alec pulled his bike off and stopped, knowing that the busses were far enough behind them to give a couple minutes rest at least. He waited patiently while Max cursed and doubled back to park next to him. "Please, hold the insults. How are we getting across the sector checks, and then, assuming we make it, how the hell are we supposed to fit these women anywhere. Because, personally, I've lost enough money on this trip."

She actually did hold her insults, but only because he was making sense and she had been thinking the same thing. Bribing an old lady was one thing, paying for motel rooms in the city was another, much more expensive, thing. "I'm still working on how to get through the sector police. But as soon as we do, I figured we'd go hit Logan up for space, he's got the room, and put the rest up at our apartments."

With that one sentence all the wonderful fantasies that had kept Alec one happy person during the day, despite having slept on the floor the night before, went away with a poof. _There goes the sleeping in my own bed idea._ "Well, seeing as you were nice enough to think of half the plan, I've got the other half."

"Let me guess, run like hell," Max sarcastically supplied with a raised eyebrow before sparing a quick check behind her to see if the busses had caught up. They hadn't, so she turned back to Alec, who didn't look nearly as pissed as he should have at her insult.

As a matter of fact, Alec was grinning at her, and not the good grin, the grin that said he was so about to do something illegal and dangerous and most likely stupid. "Ahh, Maxie, when will you learn? The plan is **always** 'run like hell,' we're just going for 'drive like hell' because of the constraints of vehicles and people minus our speed. We run the check, the busses are high enough that nobody will be recognized and they're unmarked."

Despite her better judgment, Max actually took a moment to consider this plan. It was true that the busses were high enough and couldn't be traced to them or any of the women on board directly, and as for her and Alec, well, they ran through on motorcycles all the time. "I know I'm going to kick myself later, but, why not."

Alec flashed Max his favorite 'I'm God' grin and turned to flag the busses down, which were just cresting the hill, so that they could explain the plan. As he caught Max pretend bashing her head against her steering wheel, he punched her playfully on the arm, "Hey, it'll be fun, Maxie. It's not like we'll be seeing our beds any time soon, so we might as well have some fun on our bikes."

Max smacked him back, fairly lightly, just because she wasn't sure whether he had meant that to sound so dirty, but by the raise of his eyebrow and tilt of his head, she was pretty damn sure he had. _Plus,_ she reasoned, _even if I am wrong, he did hit me first._ "Good luck convincing our happy snail-paced drivers."

"Why, Maxie," he stumbled off his bike, hand over his heart in a fake wounded way, "you underestimate my charms severely. Haven't you learned yet?" Giving her a little bow to finish his overly dramatic performance, Alec swaggered toward the now parked busses.

A small chuckle escaped Max's lips before she could stop it. _Damn it,_ she lamented to herself, _I've been spending way too much time with Alec if that attitude of his isn't making me want to kill him._ But whatever the reason, she did find his little mock-bow-salute and swagger cute, funny, and still fairly infuriating. "Ahh," this time she did bang her head on the steering wheel, lightly, "I'm being Alecanized!" Louder, so that he could hear her, she said, "Hurry up, would you? I would like to see my apartment sometime fairly soon."

Alec simply waved her off, having heard every word she said and glad that she couldn't see his face because he was having a hard time not laughing. He hadn't seen his fellow transgenic act carefree like that very often, but he decided he liked it, a lot. Max was definitely more fun when she was not threatening him with death. Not that he didn't enjoy irritating her, he did, but this was a different kind of fun. Reaching the step of the first bus, Alec called out, "Ladies, ladies, listen up; we've got a new game plan."

{-Home Sweet Seattle-}

"Okay, so where the hell do we fit in all this?" He was tired, not only was he tired, every square inch of space was currently being occupied in his apartment and in Max's apartment and it looked like Logan's was covered as well.

Tiptoeing through the door and over a few bodies currently sleeping on the floor, the younger mothers, mostly of the X8s, Max grabbed Alec's hand and pulled him with her through the main room and into a hallway. "Would you shh?" she hissed quietly, carefully stepping around the scattered things.

Alec suppressed the urge to sigh loudly and instead pushed Max into the first available room that sounded unoccupied so they could talk without her getting more pissed off. Slamming the door and switching on the light he found that it was indeed empty, but it was also Logan's master bedroom. "What's going on?"

Rubbing her eyes, Max released Alec from her grasp and turned to lock the door, she was tired also, and was aware enough to realize that she had crossed the line from being pleasant hours ago. "Look, Logan changed his mind at the last minute, said that hiding fifty strange women in his apartment without knowing why was fine but he didn't want to be here, so he went to a relative's."

Alec ran a hand through his hair, he had been putting up with Logan's whining, Max's death threats, and at least ten women at any given time swamping him with questions and thanks and bedding issues. He was willing to admit that his brain wasn't functioning quite up to speed, and her speech had just quite effectively confused him. "You lost me there, Max."

Sighing, and still being very quiet, Max unzipped her jacked and pulled off her gloves, announcing, "Okay, I know this is horribly selfish of me, but we just helped a hundred women escape and spent last night on the floor. So, I'm willing to share if you are."

 _Share,_ he wondered, _work, brain, work. Share. The bed! Oh, a bed!_ "Max," he said, so gravely that she looked up at him in slight concern, "I have been dreaming about my bed for hours now. And while Logan's room is creepily pastel, I am definitely willing to share."

With that, Alec took a virtually silent running dive past Max and onto the bed, stomach first. He let out a slight 'oof' upon impact but managed to muffle it sufficiently. He promptly began to snuggle into a ball of covers right in the middle of the bed. Max hastily finished untying her boots and climbed on the bed as well, hissing, "Hey, move over!"

Grabbing one of Logan's peach colored pillows to silence a laugh in, Alec proceeded to grab even more of the covers before he contained his laughter. Kicking his boots over the edge of the bed, and beginning to take off his own jacket, Alec graced Max with as much of an innocent grin as he could manage. "I said I'd share, didn't say I'd make it easy for you."

"You asshole," Max growled, grabbed Alec's flailing arm - which he was trying to get out of his jacket - and pulled him over to her side of the bed before climbing over him and stretching out on the other side. "I'm going to tell your mother you need to learn how to-"

Alec bowling into her and knocking her off the bed cut off her impromptu speech. Thrilled by his successful control of the center of the bed, Alec stood up and did a little happy dance, "I got the bed," he whisper-sang, "I got the bed, nah-nah-nah nah-nah nah."

Standing back up, Max took in this little dance and song routine with something akin to amazed silence. She could not believe that Alec was actually sticking his tongue out and making those little 'nah-nah-nah nah-nah nah' noises. Convinced that he really had reverted to the age of five mentally, she hopped back on the bed and tackled him. "Oh my God, you need to be spanked or something!"

Considering possible replies to this statement, Alec finally decided that as much fun as pissing Max off was, he really didn't want to see if she was serious, or how long it could take to find that out. Wriggling away from the vicious transgenic, he scooted to one side of the bed and gestured for her to take the other. "Okay, I give up, sleep now."

Max was about to protest at his complete change in mood when she realized that Alec was not pretend sleeping, he had actually stopped, dropped, and fallen asleep. And he was right; sleep was a very good idea, except he had managed to keep all the covers. Sighing, Max found an end of a plum comforter and yanked until there was enough for her to climb under. "Yahuh, what you said," she muttered.

{-Rise and Shine-}

Turning the key as quietly as he could in the lock, Logan entered his apartment, noting the women still soundly asleep. _Good thing I know where all the creaks are._ Conscious of his squeaking exoskeleton, he stepped around the women until he got to his room. Bag still slung over his shoulder; Logan was just about to turn the handle when someone collided with him from around the corner. Before he even turned, he muttered, "Careful, are you all right?"

The woman touched his shoulder in gentle apology for her clumsiness, motioning with her free hand, she made a 'shh' gesture, indicating the other women. "So sorry about that. Don't worry, I'm just fine."

So startled by how she looked, and the bare hand resting on his shirt-covered shoulder, it took Logan a minute to realize what the woman was saying and that she didn't quite look like who he had first thought. _What is this? She looks exactly like Max... no, not exactly, but..._ "It's, umm... I'm sorry, you just look very familiar."

A soft smile graced her face, as Maria took in the man's appearance, tall, with kind, if somewhat questioning, eyes. She noticed the keys in his hand and the overnight bag slung over his shoulder and quickly figured out who this must be. _Hmm, so this is our divine benefactor..._ "You must be Max's friend," at his slight nod she continued, "yes, it was so nice of you to lend us all your apartment. I'm Maria Rodriquez, Max's... mother..."

It was right at this moment that Logan finally twisted the handle on the door, and found it most stubbornly locked. Slightly confused, having not remembered locking his door, he chalked it up to stress and nonetheless pulled out his key again, trying to make sure that he had heard... Maria... right. "Max's mother?"

"Yes, I did... oh dear..." The door had swung open just as Maria had started her reply, revealing quite the scene. Something Maria was not exactly prepared to see, and from the fact that Logan dropped his keys, she imagined he wasn't quite ready for either.

Instead of being predictably empty and unscrupulously tidy, the room was littered with large peach-colored throw pillows, jackets, a pair of jeans, shirts, boots, and assorted other piles of mess. In the center of a large four-poster bed, tangled up in what appeared to be a mass of covers, were two figures. All that could be seen of the first figure was messy blonde hair, while the other was sprawled over the first, almost totally covering them from view, visible from her waist up.

The sounds of Logan's keys dropping startled both figures, the second, Max, sat up, jumping a tad but not really moving due to being trapped in the tangled mass of covers. While she scanned the room to figure out where she was and what had been going on, the other, Alec, was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, apparently not worried. The first words out of both transgenic mouths were, "What?"

Max spotted the intruders first, and made a sound somewhat like 'eep.' She looked down to attempt to untangle herself and noticed several very obvious things all at once, she was laying on Alec, his shirt was off, so was hers, and it very much looked as though... "Uh, so not what you think..."

This statement successfully clued Alec into the fact that something was going on. Looking up, he spied both Maria and Logan, wearing equally unreadable expressions. Hastily yanking at the covers to get free, Alec started to explain, "Everyone was asleep, and this was the only place for us to crash and... we're not as undressed as it may look."

Rolling her eyes skyward at his stupid rambling, Max gave a mighty heave and managed to expel Alec from both the warmth of the covers and the bed. He landed on the floor, revealing that he was indeed wearing his jeans. Now able to climb out of the mess of covers herself, Max did so and headed for the rest of her clothing, clad only in her tank top and underwear. "What the idiot over there was trying to say is that it was late and we decided to be mature adults and share sleeping arrangements instead of fighting over it." _Bed. Don't say bed. Just don't._

Giving his best smug grin, Alec nodded and collected himself, having already donned his shirt again. Carefully, he stepped around Max in a wide arch and fixed his best sincere eyes on Maria. _Let Max deal with Logan, who cares what he thinks._ "Yeah, like on a mission. Used to share beds with our units on missions all the time, it was almost sibling-like."

Sure enough, Maria's panicked look began to recede slightly, remembering both Max and Alec having mentioned several things about their siblings during talks the night before. "I really should be going, I think I hear some others waking. I just ran into your friend here, Max, and... well, good morning, rise and shine!" She finished on a cheery note before beating a hasty retreat.

Alec stayed exactly where he was, unsure what would happen if he got too close to Logan, the man was giving off very strange scent vibes. Max gave her most winning smile, but refused to offer more of an explanation. If Logan couldn't see the obvious, well, she'd deal with that when she didn't have a hundred other higher priorities. "I know we made a mess, but if you want to give us just a minute, we'll clean up." Yanking on her jeans, she advanced forward, forcing Logan back by her proximity, and smiled once more before closing the door again.

To find Alec collapsed in a fit of laughter, rolled back on the bed and clutching his stomach. She hastily finished doing up her jeans and put her hands on her hips, waiting. It took Alec a moment to recover himself, "The look on his face... and he thought," Alec gestured helplessly between himself, Max, and the bed.

Before either really knew what was going on, Max had moved forward and pushed Alec back until she was straddling him and had him trapped under her. Biting her lip slightly, Max looked him over and announced, "I don't see what is so very funny, Alec. We need Logan's help with this. And as for us, the closest you're going to get is a spanking if you keep acting this ridiculously."

"You dirty girl. I always knew you were into that, Maxie," Alec cocked his head at her and gave a grin that made his meaning perfectly clear. _Is she serious?_

Jumping back slightly, Max released him and winked slightly. "You'll just have to find out, won't you?" grabbing her boots, over-shirt, and jacket, she started to walk out, calling back, "Oh, and would you clean up this mess, since you made it?" _I can't believe I just said that! Oh God..._

She heard, "Oh yeah, and just who got up in the middle of the night and threw half her clothes and the blankets all over the room?" behind her retreating back, but the door was already closed, and she wasn't heading back for any reason.

Alec, meanwhile, tossed the scattered pillows and blankets in a pile on the bed, and grabbed the rest of his stuff before following Max outside. _Two can play that game. Besides, let Logan deal with the mess. What kind of man has peach pillows?_

{-Paperwork and yet More Paperwork-}

"So, am I being a good boy, or do I need a spanking?" The deep voice whispered into her ear, not a trace of amusement apparent, just raw... everything.

Max could feel tingles going down her spine and she almost had to force herself to spin around, careful of what she was going to see. The hazel eyes of the man behind her weren't exactly reassuring when she finally did turn, but at least she could see that he was smiling slightly. "Alec, would you let it go already?"

Finally letting out the laugh that wanted to escape, Alec resumed his position sitting next to Max in front of the massive piles of paperwork. "Sorry, I'll be good, promise," he had no qualms about promising something, because he had seen the way Max had jumped slightly when he had come up behind her.

Tossing him a look that clearly stated what she thought about his ability to keep such a promise, Max resumed sorting through the papers as she had been assigned. Logan had gone so far as to print out a 'fake-ids-r-us' order form, and each woman had been asked to fill in the basics. Then he'd told Max and Alec that they got the joy of alphabetizing by age and first name. "Would you just get back to work? I want to get this done so that maybe we can go to our own apartments tonight, instead of crashing here."

Alec opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it; he certainly didn't want to be sleeping on Logan's floor, with peach colored blankets, because he had no doubt that Logan would not let them steal his bedroom again. _It's not like we broke anything..._ he lamented silently. "What are we up to?"

Tossing him a pile, Max announced, "The parental units of the X3s. Joy, oh joy. I don't even remember seeing any X3s around Manticore," she sighed and continued, well aware that they had still some seventy women to run through, at least.

"Find anything useful to us yet?" Alec questioned cautiously, looking around to make sure that nobody was in earshot before adding, "Weren't most of the early X series' Nomalies? Because in that case..."

Motioning frantically, Max smacked Alec only half-heartedly but hard enough to make him be quiet. "Alec, God, shut up. That is up there on the top five thousand subjects I'm trying not to bring up to anyone here." Pausing in order to calm herself, Max took a deep, over-exaggerated breath, and answered the other transgenic's earlier question. "So far, from what I can tell, these women are all from our Manticore, but we're missing another hundred at least..."

Sighing, Alec began shuffling through the papers at a superhuman pace, joining Max in her work, "Which means there's another... facility..." he spit out the word, "not to mention the other Manticore buildings."

Max shifted subjects swiftly, because she didn't want to worry about all the other Manticores that could still be in operation, or about the other women. She would worry about them, just not right now. "Alec, once we get this all sorted, do you think you could hack back into that database? I'd like to be able to give these women an idea of who they're looking for and where to head."

Alec's head shot up at this, and he regarded Max with a suspicious look, fingers momentarily fumbling before picking up their pace again. "You know where the others are? Max?"

Shaking her head softly, Max avoided his gaze, "No, but I've been working on it. Some have passed through, and I know more or less where they went. Zack... he used to have some sort of system set up, he knew where we all were... I got kicked off though, because I wouldn't leave and now..." She stopped and shook her head, "I've been working on it, and I used to have a few contacts."

Setting the paperwork back down into the appropriate piles, Alec nodded shortly. He completely understood Zack having kept track of his troops, although he wouldn't have expected Max to; it was the job of the CO of the group, keep them together and know where they are. "I should round up my group then, probably some of them have mothers here, or maybe they could go after any other facilities Manticore has set up."

Now it was Max's turn to be startled. She actually stopped sorting, having been up to the X6s anyway, and turned all the way to the side until she was face to face with Alec. "You can do that?"

Grinning cheekily just to get some sort of emotion visible on Max's face, he nodded again, "Well, yeah, Maxie, it's my job." at her slightly startled look and eye roll, he elaborated slightly, "What, you thought I took all those little road trips for the hell of it? I don't know where they all are, but most of them."

Remembering the way Zack had looked out for her as he had undoubtedly looked out for the rest of their siblings, with such genuine – if slightly misguided – concern, Max smiled. Her whole demeanor softened slightly as she looked at Alec now, tilting her head slightly to the side to see what had changed. _For such a stubborn ass, he's been protecting them..._ "That's..."

Unconsciously tilting his head to the side in much the same gesture as Max, he tried to figure out what had suddenly changed. She was looking at him... differently... Leaning closer ever so slightly, Alec stared into those haunted brown eyes and tried to figure out what he'd said that was so profound. "What?"

Listening to his quiet reply, Max nodded slightly, feeling more playful and relaxed than she had in a long time. _A team, our own little group. Enough to take out White, Manticore; all of it. No more running, and..._ Letting her eyes slip closed, Max leaned forward and breathed, "...Great..."

Before he knew what was really happening, still trying to figure out what was so super great about him being in touch with his siblings, there was a soft brush of lips against his. Eyes jerking open, he met the brown of his companion, both pulling away, and laughed slightly. "You have an eyelash right," Alec brushed his thumb over Max's cheek and wiped away the offending hair, "there..."

Scrunching up her nose, Max straightened in her chair and shook herself free of whatever little trance she had been in. Left with an urge to tease more than hurt, she chuckled, "You're such a Smart-Alec."

Refusing to break eye contact, not even with a blink, Alec also sat up properly in his chair, allowing a smirk to grace his face. Eyes twinkling mischievously, he announced loudly, "Yeah, well, that's what you love about me. I'm God, and we all know it."

Rolling her eyes skyward in a gesture she probably did with Alec more than anyone else, and in the least seriousness, Max ruffled his hair slightly, trying to keep the atmosphere of the room light as a million possibilities rushed through her head. _We both just leaned too much and that was all, just, leaned forward and whoops... Oh, God._ "Pfft, only in your own mind," almost sheepishly she added, "well, and when you hack into that database for me again."

"Aww," he placed his hand over his heart, "I'm wounded." When the only response was a raised eyebrow, he sighed, putting down his part of the paperwork. "Right on it, Captain Maxie," he gave a mock salute and jogged out of the room before she could decide to hit him for the nickname.

{-Trials and Errors-}

Groaning, Alec clacked away at the keyboard at an inhuman pace for a few more minutes, before leaning over to scribble names on his piece of paper, never taking his eyes off of the ever-changing programming. After his last little adventure into their database, Manticore had certainly jacked up security. "That's ninety down, only sixteen more to go..."

Despite his best efforts to stop it, a yawn snuck up on the transgenic, causing him to blink for a fraction of a second. When he looked up again, the screen was blank. Not in the, 'oops, the program closed,' blank, but in the 'everything's gone' type of blank. _Shit,_ "Shit!"

Turning at the other man's frustrated exclamation, Logan walked out of the kitchen and over to the computer, looking over Alec's shoulder, and seeing... _Nothing..._ "Alec, what happened? Please tell me you got something on the virus?"

Rolling his eyes, Alec shook his head. A few hours before, when he had first started this seemingly endless quest to match mothers with transgenics, Logan had come in. It had been right about the time that Max had left to get in touch with as many of her siblings as she could.

Without any preamble, Logan had requested that since Alec was using his computer and his resources, he should attempt to locate the virus cure. Alec hadn't given it a second thought until now. The opportunity was too good for the transgenic to resist. "Log, my man, I hate to break it to you. But it's all gone. Poof. Thanks a fucking lot, Manticore."

Without giving Alec a chance to explain further, Logan pushed the transgenic out of the way and stared at the blank computer screen in horror. Trying everything he could think of and typing in many codes, the screen still remained the same pitch black. "Tell me that wasn't what I think it was."

Shrugging unconcernedly, Alec stood from the computer chair he had been using and put his hands in his pocket, snatching up his piece of paper before Logan could see it. _Serves him right for being such a pushy bastard this morning and then giving Max and I all this work._ "What can I say, Manticore jacked up security and erased the database. It's gone."

"Did you take notes? Give us something to work on?" At the downcast and slightly sheepish look that Logan received, he jumped toward Alec, exploding, "You didn't take NOTES!?"

Refusing to back away, Alec stood his ground, crossing his arms over his chest in a motion that unconsciously echoed a pissed off Max, and glaring at the approaching human. "You're looking a tad bit aggressive there, Log. I get that, really, I do. But if you come any closer to me, I will break you." He paused, considering this statement, and amended, "Worse, I mean, than you're broken now."

Stopping where he was, instead of losing the murderous glint in his eyes, Logan decided it was best for him to be clear on exactly what Alec had done. _Oh God, what if he really did and..._ he couldn't let his mind stay on that track, so instead he asked, "You hacked into the information about the cure, and got it deleted by Manticore security."

Tilting his head to the side slightly, Alec shrugged again, eyes sparkling with mischief that Logan couldn't see or didn't notice. Finally uncrossing his arms, the transgenic answered in a steady voice, "Yeah, that's pretty much it. Like I said, sorry about that, rough break." Moving toward the door, Alec called back, "I think maybe I should go now, let you calm down a bit."

With a deep roar, Logan used all his speed from the exoskeleton and charged at Alec's retreating back, screaming, "Come back here you little asshole!"

Turning around just in time to avoid being tackled, Alec jumped back and put his hands up, effectively putting enough distance between him and the other man that he could stop Logan's charge instead of throwing him backwards like normal. "Look, I'm sorry okay. But don't do that again, this was your last warning." He then turned and walked out, of the apartment, trying to hide the laugh that wanted to sneak out.

After staring out the open door for more than a few moments, Logan finally broke down into tears. Slinking back to his couch, he managed to find his phone and dial, sinking down into the chair. The phone rang once, twice, and... "Hello?"

Sobbing freely now, Logan managed to get himself calmed enough to answer, "Max, this is Logan... there's been a problem," he realized that he sounded pathetic, but there was nothing he could do, it felt as though his every hope was dying.

At the other end of the line there was silence for a moment, than after the pause had been allowed to stretch out and Max could clearly make out the sounds of Logan crying, she spoke, shakily. "Oh my God, is it Alec..." When Logan didn't answer, she continued, "He's okay, right?"

{-Coffee Break-}

Leaning back in her couch, Max took a deep breath and stared at the phone sitting on the table, glad that she was done using it. Not to mention that they were alone, finally, the mothers were on their way wherever they needed to be. "So that's round one?"

Flopping down next to her, Alec sighed loudly and put his feet up on the table that not even an hour ago had still been covered in paperwork. _All that fucking paperwork, thank God that's done with._ Nodding in agreement he said, "Yeah..."

Her mind abruptly shifted gears and Max began to wonder about the other transgenics that they had called in. Mostly Alec's group but some of her siblings as well, all having been briefed and sent on their way. "They're really going to go rescue everyone else and we get stuck here?"

He considered this for a moment or two. _It will be sad that someone else gets to blow up the next place._ However, Alec quickly found the main reason he was glad it wasn't them doing this again. "Aww, Maxie, lighten up, at least they're the ones who will have to hide the next group."

A light grin came unbidden on Max's face, and her eyes sparkled, as she recalled that very idea. "I suppose, we did give them all Logan's important forgery contacts."

Unable to resist teasing her, Alec smirked and announced, "The Log-man finally came in useful for something, huh."

Her expression darkening slightly, Max glowered at him. _Asshole,_ her brain helpfully supplied, but she couldn't quite bring herself to really be pissed off. Only minorly pissed off then. "Alec, you're pushing it."

Sighing, Alec put his hands up in a calming gesture and tried to keep the teasing tone to her voice as compared to the 'I'm going to kill you slowly and painfully' one. "I know. Whatcha going to do about it, sic Roller-Boy on me?"

For some reason, his playful and slightly irritating mood didn't anger her like it had only a month ago. Instead of finding him insufferable, Max was finding him almost funny. This idea scared her significantly. "I was thinking I'd sic me on you."

Without missing a beat, Alec replied dutifully, "Always knew you'd want to be on top."

Refusing to retreat back into her shell as she so often did anymore, Max quickly replied. "Always knew you'd want to be dominated. What with the abuse you practically ask for from me," she knew it was a little harsh but she felt it, and she also felt that she was being good by not just smacking him for the comment.

Huffing slightly, his grin slipping from his face even though his eyes were still smiling, Alec muttered irritably, "Just because you're volatile and bitchy, does not mean I did anything wrong."

Forcing a less bitchy tone of voice, while he was looking down and away from her so that he couldn't see the murder in her eyes, Max tried sweetly, "Alec?"

Looking up almost hopefully and quite ready with comebacks for whatever she might say in an attempt to turn their bantering into a fight. He'd finally figured out that so long as he didn't let her and didn't piss her off too much, he got to see her cute scrunched up angry face and not be hit at the same time. "Yes?"

Eyes flashing dangerously, Max reminded him, "You lied and told Logan you'd accidentally erased the formula for the cure." _He is so damn lucky that I'm not going to kill him for making me put up with a whining Logan alone!_

Leaning closer to his companion, Alec couldn't help but continue to tease her. "So?"

Jumping back and practically off the couch, Max exclaimed, "SO!?" She was definitely getting angry now, no playing around this time.

Scrambling over to her, but refusing to get off of the comfy couch, Alec instead laid down, effectively taking up the whole couch while still being close enough to talk to her. "C'mon, you can't tell me the look on his face wasn't priceless."

"Actually, I can." _Because I didn't get to see it!_ "Because you weren't the one who had to listen to him sobbing over the phone for half an hour before someone could get a hold of you to find out that you were lying." Max crossed her arms over her chest and glared, angry at both his actions and the fact that there was now no room for her on the couch.

With a cheeky grin, Alec stared up at her. "Would you feel better if you spanked me?" _And going... going... gone, still too good to resist bugging her about that!_

Letting her arms slip from across her chest, Max licked her lips and enjoyed that startled look that earned her. Leaning closer to him, she whispered, "You'd enjoy that too much..."

Securely and sneakily wrapping his arms around Max's waist, he yanked, and she came falling on top of him. After taking a moment to make sure he was breathing again, _damn, she's heavier than I thought,_ Alec replied. "Well, yeah."

From her position now most certainly on top of Alec, Max sat up and ran her hands up his chest, smiling sweetly. Once she reached his neck, she placed her hands around it and tightened, eyes flashing wickedly. "I was thinking of strangling you."

Letting her go in order to bat her hands away from his throat, Alec let out a partially strangled, "Hey!" before finally getting free from the other transgenic's grasp.

Crawling off of him and standing up, Max chuckled slightly, unable to resist due to the look he was now giving her. "Alec, I'm joking. Kinda."

Shaking his head slightly to clear it, Alec moved up on the couch until he was sitting then stood up, having remembered the people in the other room. Straightening his shirt out where it was ruffled, Alec groaned, "Yeah, yeah, c'mon, coffee break's over, and the mom patrol will start to wonder where we've gotten too. Hacking makes people so very irritable."

Letting Alec go ahead of her, Max followed him toward the door, trying not to think how insane she had just been acting. _Have I really lost my mind, or is this just a side-effect from dealing with Logan when he was so emotionally traumatized?_ "Hmph, that's just because I beat you and found Joanne's daughter first."

Throwing his hands up in defeat, Alec inquired without looking back at her, "Is it my fault the X8s all look the same?"

Pushing him a little to get him out the open door and into the other room, Max stuck out her tongue at the back of his head, knowing that he wouldn't see her and teased, "Sore loser."

{-Curiosity Killed the Cat-}

"So," she bustled around the room, making more noise than was really necessary in her futile attempt to both keep busy and look like she belonged.

Catching the cue effortlessly, Max took off her jacket and sat on the couch, already looking more at home than the other woman. Smiling easily like she hadn't really since before... _Here? Logan... Hell, even OC, yeah, since before all that._ "You settling in okay? Have everything you need? I know it's hard to get used to the world again and all that..." _I'm babbling! Oh God, I never babble, what's wrong with me?_

Pouring two cups of tea, both decaffeinated, and one with more milk contained in it than actual tea, Maria sat down across from the transgenic. "Max, it's not so bad really," she laughed slightly, having found the babbling carefree parts of her daughter amusing and reassuring, "I don't need anything, no. And if I did, I think I can manage a trip to the market on my own... unless those nasty men are scouting out after me for even that?"

There was a rather long pause while Max thought this over. She was so used to this, the helping people work it on the outside; because she'd so wished there had been someone there for her. But she'd forgotten that her mother was from the outside originally, she'd just been in forced confinement. "Yeah, sorry, I'm just so used to helping Joshua out, I guess."

Politely, if curiously, Maria inquired to this. She hadn't had a chance to talk to her daughter since they'd made the great escape, and Max had been so official and in control then, it hadn't seemed like a good time. The only people Max had really mentioned were Alec, Logan, Original Cindy, and something vague about siblings. "Joshua? He is..."

Shifting slightly on the couch, posture automatically straightening, Max sighed and prepared herself emotionally to explain, to yet another person, about her life. "Joshua, he was... is... one of Manticore's first experiments, I guess. It didn't go too well. Joshua's great, just has a bit of trouble getting around."

Pondering this, Maria was both pleased that Max was sharing with her, intrigued about her daughter's friend, and still confused. "Does he have trouble walking or...?"

Nervously, Max fidgeted on the couch, already bored at sitting still so long and uncomfortable with the choice of topics. "Well, uh, he's kind of tall and..." she looked around at the walls for some sort of help, but they offered none. Finally, Max settled for gesturing toward her face slightly and muttering, "Dog DNA, ya'know, there's some face... stuff..."

"Oh," Maria nodded, not sure whether she understood or not, but getting enough to understand that there was something odd in appearance about Max's friend, and that it made her daughter uncomfortable to have to focus on it. _It's nice that she doesn't think about things like that and... Dog DNA? What dog DNA?_ Repeating it out loud, she asked, "Dog DNA? Do you have dog DNA?"

Smiling haplessly, and biting her lip slightly, just to try to stop herself from pacing and remind herself to breathe while she thought it out. _Straight and narrow, all the way._ "Nah, cat, mostly. Said something about sharks, but that was just about sleep, or so I'm told."

Unable to contain herself, Maria looked her daughter over critically, just incase there was a tail, cat ears, gills, _fins._ She quickly reassured herself that nothing could be hiding in jeans so tight, and that everything else appeared normal. "Cat, like, in the meowing, purring, hissing, growling, kind?"

Chuckling slightly at the analogy, Max stood up finally and crossed the room, scooping out the best place to try out some little stunts for her mom. "More like the," eyes crossing over to the window she expanded her vision and looked into the apartment across the way, "there's a guy in that apartment over there who's eating pasta and watching some pre-pulse show."

Standing as well, Maria crossed over to the window and looked out; she could see the decaying apartment complex that Max was referring to clearly, and vague outlines of shapes through the windows, but nothing so detailed. "So no cat sounds then?"

 _I met a cat once, that was... strange..._ Tilting her head to the side slightly, Max winked and said, "Well, Alec claims I bite, but that's not true. And I think we're safe with everything else. Wanna see the more cool parts of cat DNA?"

Maria nodded, and then watched dumbfounded as Max started running across the small room, quickly becoming a blur of black, which then traveled halfway up and across the wall before rematerializing as Max, standing in front of her. "Oh my... oh."

Shrugging almost sheepishly, Max couldn't help the grin that crept up her face. It felt good that she wasn't being looked at like a freak, not to mention that something to do with Manticore could actually be almost fun. _Ya'know, when not avoiding bullets and hit men, all's good._ "Yeah, well agility and balance and speed and all that. Makes the perfect soldier - yadda, yadda, yadda."

A sad smile came to Maria and she motioned Max toward her, so that she could look her in the eyes and make sure her meaning wasn't misunderstood. "I had no idea, I mean, there were a lot of vitamins, but I had no idea that..."

Dropping to the floor next to the other woman effortlessly, Max sighed, a slight bitterness tingeing her teasing voice. "It's okay, not like Manticore was going to advertise their great idea of messing with human and animal DNA. So it worked out in some cases, genetic engineering. Freak of nature, that's me."

Shaking her head slowly, trying not to cry because that would be feeling sorry for herself, and she had no right to feel sorry for herself when it was her youthful idiocy which had caused the whole situation. "You're not, I mean, I don't think you're a freak." She watched as Max looked up and two pairs of chocolate eyes met, "I'm so sorry. I don't deserve to be forgiven for all that you went through, but... it's not all horrible, and I don't think there's anything wrong with you. Besides, there must be some advantages."

Jumping up smoothly, Max's eyes flashed and she spun around, flipping her hair up and baring her neck to her mother. _She's sorry, she doesn't even know! What I went through, what we went through... sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry too._ "Advantages? How's this for an advantage. This is my barcode, it's permanent, I've tried having it removed; it grows back. They programmed it into my genes. Just like they made everything about me. It helps them track me down and pull me from the crowd. X5-332960073452, that's me."

Lowering her head, Maria fought a losing battle with self-hatred. She had been the irresponsible teenager, and her decisions had created this being that was far too mature to be twenty. Too young to have gone through whatever unspeakable things that she had, Maria didn't even want to guess at those. _It's all your fault!_ Hopelessly trying to lighten the atmosphere, she spoke softly. "I was thinking that you must have killed in gymnastics... but..."

Straightening, Max unconsciously checked and made sure that her now straight hair was covering her barcode, and turned back to face her mother, flawless smile back in place, if forced this time. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm just not really ready to go there, okay? Maybe some other time, but... not now... Let's catch up on the rest of life, okay? No creepy government operations."

Maria smiled as well, shoving back the thoughts spinning around in her head. "Of course," trying desperately to think of something else normal sounding, and coming up blank, she went with the obvious, "so, boyfriend, best friend, proxy-siblings? Let's get all caught up."

{-The Cat in the Hat-}

"So," he looked around the room cautiously, trying to get the feel for it, find entrances and exits, dangers and safe spots, trying to get comfortable in the still strange surrounding, even if he didn't look uncomfortable.

From her spot sitting happily on the couch, Emily smiled. She was still getting used to everything about being on her own again, free again, but seeing the young man in the doorway made her day. Made it seem like as bad as it all had been and as stupid as she had been, maybe it could still be okay. "You can come in, you know."

Walking in cautiously, Alec shrugged and took off his jacket, settling it on a chair before following Emily's example and sitting down. "You're settling in okay? Have everything you need? I know it's hard to get used to the world again and all that..." he paused, trying to seem calmer. "Just, if you need any help with anything, that's what I'm here for."

Edging into more of a sitting position, Emily leaned forward and offered Alec a glass of milk, picking up her own forgotten glass. "I'm doing okay, I think. But don't worry, if I need help, I'll let you know." she laughed slightly, internally thanking everything that she could that she was getting the chance to know this young man, to be able to tell that he was nervous.

Shrugging slightly, Alec let a slight smile come across his face for her benefit mostly. He was nervous; agitated over a subject that he knew it was past time to bring up. "Yeah, that's good."

Emily nodded, accepting that it probably would be hard for her to get used to life again, and knowing more than anything that she was glad she had her son here to help her though it, to be there for her. It was all a mother could ask for, something she wasn't sure that she deserved. "That's why I had a big, strong boy, right? To help me move furniture around when I so desire."

Alec looked down quickly, not wanting to meet Emily's gaze yet, but knowing that he was going to have to eventually. That he would have to explain something that he didn't really have any right to be explaining, something that he was still trying to deal with. "Yeah," it lacked the confidence his tone usually held.

Even that brief look that she caught was enough to convince Emily that something was wrong, something was making Alec sad and nervous more so than just that they were here talking. "Alec," she waited until he looked up and tried to show understanding in her gaze, "what's wrong?"

"It's... do you remember, even a little..." he gestured fruitlessly, too flustered to get out what he wanted to say without either being too blunt or too vague. Alec looked away again, for the first time in his life unable to find the words.

There was only one thing that Emily could think he would be asking about, to do with memory that she should have and he would know about. Why Alec was so upset confused her, but she understood that it would come out in time. He would explain, she hoped. "When I had you?" he nodded, "No, they put me to sleep. Complications, they said... I never got to see you..." she could feel her eyes misting but fought the urge to cry away.

Biting his lip, Alec noted that as was usual the easy way through anything was being denied to him. It didn't surprise him overly, but it didn't help him either. Not knowing what else to say, Alec decided the only thing to do was spit it out as straightforward as possible. "I guess nobody ever told you... they didn't tell me either... I was a twin."

Her breath caught in her throat and Emily felt a wave of first confusion, then joy, then pain, as his words sank in and she caught the telltale and heartbreaking _was._ Swallowing the slight lump that was forming in her throat, Emily managed to breathe out, "Was?"

Nodding unhappily, Alec couldn't help but realize now that he had friends and almost a family how much it meant to him that he'd never even gotten to meet his identical twin. For the first time he could feel the empty spot where it meant something to him, where it meant everything to him. "Ben... he... died, last year..."

Closing her eyes tightly, Emily fought against a flashback to her much younger self, the one who had looked wide-eyed at the seemingly easy offer that Manticore had given her and had accepted without any further thought. She wondered how she could have known so little and been so stupid. "What... what happened?"

Licking his suddenly dry lips, Alec turned back to meet his mother's stare, and replied evenly, "Manticore. Wanted to take him back and he didn't want to go..." he could see the questions forming in Emily's eyes, but refused to get drawn into them. "I never met Ben," he could see the startled look this elicited. "We were in different units. He was with Max's unit... she knew him. You should really talk to her."

She could see the way talking about this hurt Alec, even though he was trying not to admit to it. Thinking about all this was hurting her, and Emily wasn't even sure if it had really sunk in yet. They needed to talk about something else, something less raw. "So, you and Max, huh?"

Jerking slightly, startled, Alec was sure he would blush, but thankfully he was able to side step the natural reaction with the practiced ease of ignoring emotions. He did imagine that his slack jaw did somewhat give it away though. "Me and... Max? Like that. Uh, no, see, we're friends." _Yeah, the kind of friends who kissed, apparently..._

Despite herself, a slight twinkle lit in Emily's eyes as she tried not to smile. Her mouth twitched slightly and then was calm again; as though she hadn't seen way, way, too much from the flustered reaction she had received to her question. "Oh. I see." _It's a little more than that from Maria's descriptions..._ "My mistake."

"Uh, yeah," Alec turned slightly, fixing the collar of his shirt, and Emily caught distinct sight of some sort of tattoo. When Alec looked back again, Emily was regarding him curiously, "What?"

Gesturing to his neck, Emily asked with equal parts curiosity and amusement, "Is that a tattoo on your neck, or are you going to tell me about some sort of bizarre encounter with a black marker."

Instead of the returning grin that Emily expected, Alec paled slightly, hand lingering to rest protectively over his neck. Then he let out an unneeded sigh and tried to calm his nerves, reminding himself that Emily was by far not the first person to notice his barcode, and probably one of the few he could trust. "Not a tattoo. A barcode. Mine, actually."

"Ahh," Emily nodded as though his cryptic answer had explained everything just as well as a five-paragraph speech would have. "So, my son's like some sort of superhero."

Finally, her comment got the reaction she was going for, a grin, and a slight chuckle. Alec stood up abruptly, "That's nothing, watch this."

Emily watched, dumbfounded, as Alec suddenly was nothing more than a blur of color that she could follow moving across the room and... _up the wall?_ Then he was back again, grin firmly on his face, having taken no more than a second out of her sight. "Oh, my."

Still smiling, Alec caught the expression on her face and noted with satisfaction that it was more shock than horror. He hadn't wanted to admit to himself that he had been slightly worried that she might not like his transgenic side. "Superhero, huh? Never been called that before, but I like it. Wait till I tell Max!"

Recognizing that perhaps they both needed some time to breathe and think things through, Emily embraced this idea instead of embracing Alec, as she wanted to. He still seemed to be holding back slightly. "Hmm, just remember that she's a superhero, too. No fighting amongst you gods."

Alec laughed along with his mother, sweeping up his jacket fluidly and turning to go, suddenly awkward. But when she waved him on, Alec relaxed again, glad that he wouldn't have to do too much more of the hugging thing, especially when he was still trying to get used to all this family stuff, "Will do. See you later," he paused. "Mom," and was out the door.

{-The Superhero Justice League-}

"You think we should what?" Came the stern but slightly bemused reply, complete with the disbelieving look that he had come to expect.

Grinning recklessly, Alec replied, "I think we should create some sort of Superhero Transgenic Justice League and all go into gymnastics, with this messed up DNA, we'd make a killing. Plus, we could invite all the other transgenics wandering, lost without a mission." Even he was amazed at the straight face he managed.

 _Have to give him credit for actually pulling off that speech and not laughing,_ Max grudgingly admitted to herself, fighting to keep her own grin away because it was too ludicrous of an idea to grace with any sort of smile that could be taken as encouragement. "Alec," she began slowly, whether to keep herself serious or to make him be serious, she wasn't sure, "are you actually, seriously, suggesting this?"

Nodding, Alec continued to elaborate on his plan, "Just think about it, we've got the speed, agility, balance... everything, we would win all the medals and-"

Cutting him off smoothly, Max inquired, "Do they even still have medals? I thought all that stuff was over."

This statement and question actually stopped Alec's excited train of thought for more than a moment, as he vaguely tried to recall whether there was still such a thing as gymnastics that involved the winning of prizes. "I suppose not, must have been watching too much pre-pulse TV. We could restart it though, ooh better yet, Olympics!"

Shaking off the unnerving feeling caused by him suggesting the same concept of being good in gymnastics as her mother had, Max queried, "And what exactly brought on this burst of creative, although insane, ideas?"

Enthusiasm leveled off into an almost embarrassed answer, that was, if Alec got embarrassed, which he felt no reason to ever do. "Uh, my mom, she said we were like superheroes, and it made me think of all those old superhero shows, and then I thought about gymnastics."

The look of lost and almost childlike awe that crossed Alec's face at the words 'my mom,' was not lost on Max. She felt like she was seeing her own feelings reflected, from the slight pause before and after saying the words to the emotions that she could see in Alec's eyes and feel in her heart. "Yeah, my mom, uh, she said we'd be good at gymnastics." She paused, trying to steady her somehow shaky voice, "You two must think alike."

Alec laughed anyway despite the fact that Max's normally flawless sense of humor was off today; he appreciated the icebreaker and the chance to relax again. He'd noticed the look Max wore when she spoke of her mother also, and he was glad that she was calming down enough to show her emotions. According to Original Cindy, she used to be much more open than he'd ever previously seen her, although he was catching glimpses now. "Amazing, huh, and here I thought you and I thought alike, aside from the hitting and miscommunication and... no wait, that sounds right."

The smack that he received was not unexpected, but it was lighter than usual. Max had to lean over to deal this harmless blow, and suddenly they were face to face, closer than they had been since that... _Accidental brush, that's what it was, the leaning and the... that's so... not... going... to... happen..._

Both transgenics tensed when they leaned in again, neither sure why, how, or what it meant that this had happened, again, but then, slowly, experimentally, they leaned in a little closer. Their lips met more decisively, and opened just... just slightly.

Not daring to open her eyes, Max shifted a little bit closer so that she was now leaning, almost falling off of the coffee table she had been previously occupying. Alec cautiously raised his hands to her hips and pulled slightly, muffling a laugh in her lips when her slightly startled gasp reached his ears as she landed on top of him.

The kiss was timid, yes, but not uncertain, and slowly it gained confidence, Max tangling her hands in Alec's hair, his hands sliding up her back and then down again. The feeling was... different... it was tender, but hinting at something greater, a barely-there tingle that threatened to become a full-blown fire.

The dazed type of stopped-time ended when the need for air presented itself, which was almost an eternity in and of itself; both being able to hold their breath for quite some time. Max's eyelids fluttered open first, watching as Alec's did a likewise motion. She made a half giggling, half snorting sound, "You just did the dazed fluttery thing."

Raising an eyebrow without missing a beat, Alec brushed a hair from Max's face and tucked it behind her ear, watching her eyelids half close and then open again. Smiling slightly, he replied, "And you didn't?"

Laughing, Max stuck her tongue out at Alec in the quickest retort she could think of. Before she could retract said tongue, he'd leaned forward and captured it quickly, more passionately than before, but then he leaned back again, still smiling. He let go of her with his other hand to place both up in as innocent of a gesture as he could manage, "You better watch that tongue."

Swatting at his hands to knock them down from such a ridiculous position, Max gave him a look that clearly said that he had known exactly what he was doing, and she knew it. Glancing down for only a split second was enough to remind Max that she was still lounging on Alec's lap. She almost blushed, feeling awkward but not finding any of that remorse she knew was buried somewhere. Not while she was still here. "So... that was new..."

Alec noted the change in her emotions immediately, only because it was at the same time that it occurred to him that he had no idea how this had happened, or what it changed, what it did, what happened now. _And, suddenly feeling the awkwardness._ Never one to let some emotion like that stop him, Alec caught Max's gaze in his own and managed to look as serious as he dared. "So, does this mean I can't tease you about spanking me anymore?"

{-One Hell of a Workout-}

At first, Emily wasn't exactly sure what to make of the scene she had walked in on. It was only once the blurs slowed and forms rematerialized to her sight that she started to get an idea. The woman stood very still, trying to make sure that she had the right details before she was noticed.

The two transgenics slowed their speeds as the wall came up closer to them, but still hit it at a fairly hard pace. Twin grunts sounded for only a second before Max had gained the upper hand and yanked, throwing Alec off balance and into the coffee table.

Too absorbed in the match to notice the spectator watching them, the fight continued. Alec caught his balance so quickly that only another transgenic would be able to tell that he had fallen at all. Eyes locked on each other, they circled briefly before Alec dove forward, catching Max round the legs as she jumped back and yanking her to the ground.

Before she was pinned more than a moment, Max used her arms to push herself up, grabbing Alec and tossing him over her head smoothly. Once both had scrambled up, on opposite sides of the room again, Max grinned, "You gonna catch me, or just stay over there?"

Dodging around furniture, they came after each other once again, becoming locked in a brief embrace of tangled arms before Alec pushed away, leaving Max to be the one sprawling back over the couch this time. "If I recall correctly," he stepped to the side to avoid her grab, "this is still a tie game."

Abruptly, Max stood still, hands on her hips, just barely out of arms’ reach from Alec, "Tie game?" She asked incredulously, "In what world? I so had you pinned two times."

"Yeah, but," Alec countered, stepping forward and catching Max around the waist this time, taking advantage of her distraction, "I had you pinned just a minute ago."

Max stepped back to pull free of Alec, but both transgenics misjudged and rebalanced just a second too late, Alec's arms releasing Max to steady himself, tilting her backwards dangerously. She grabbed his shirt to regain her balance, but Alec wasn't stable yet, and both went tumbling back onto the floor. "Off," she groaned, as Alec's bodyweight landed on top of her.

Rolling to the side, Alec lay next to Max, both sprawled out on the floor for a moment, taking time to catch their breath and wondering how any wooden floor could be that damn hard. They'd dented the wall; the floor had dented them. Finally, Alec announced, "That was three, I win."

Pushing herself up on one elbow, Max lay on her side and regarded Alec and his statement equally, "You're counting that?" She sat up fully and shook her head to get her hair out of her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for a reply.

Also moving to a sitting position, Alec questioned, "I was on top, wasn't I?" His grin and the sparkle of his eyes made the statement seem a little less than innocent.

It was times like these when Max lamented that her naming of Alec had been so accurate. _It's actually kind of cute though..._ Catching her train of thought quickly, Max shook it away; she would not get into this now, or the fact that she was strangely inclined to shut him up by kissing him instead of hitting him. "Jackass."

Rolling his eyes, Alec stood up and offered Max his hand to pull her up also, keeping a wary eye, just incase she decided to pull him down instead. When she simply jumped up though, Alec shook his head; "It's no fun when you're not mad."

"Good, does that mean you'll stop now?" There was just a hint of irritation in her voice; losing wasn't her strong suit, especially when the winning pin was more of an accident than anything else.

Around this point in time, they finally started paying enough attention to something else to realize that someone else was there. Both transgenics spun around and saw Emily in the doorway, confused expression on her face.

For the first minute or so, Emily had been sure that they were fighting, but then they had started talking, and from the grins and lack of damage being inflicted, Emily had decided that wasn't the case. She had gotten the opportunity to watch them fight the guards at the hospital before, and this was nothing like that had been. Now she realized that they had been having some sort of a contest, but it didn't account with the suddenly bashful looks on their faces. "Alec, I was just coming over to ask you to come to dinner? And Max, of course you're invited also."

Avoiding Max's eyes, Alec kept his attention focused on his mother. He wasn't exactly sure what she thought or how this looked. Whatever the case, he was sure that explaining how he had teased Max and she had challenged him to spar, with some interesting prizes to the winner, was not something he wanted to get into. Instead, Alec shrugged, "Maybe another time, if that's okay."

Nodding, Emily motioned that she was going to leave, the sudden tension very obvious. She filed away this odd scene for future reference and analysis, possibly with Maria, "Well, I'll be heading out then, Maria will be joining me anyway." Halfway through the door, Emily called back, "I hope you two had a good workout?"

Luckily, she didn't wait for a reply because Max was already blushing and looking for her jacket, and Alec had moved to shut the door, firmly this time, and to lock it. Max noticed this and shrugged slightly, "Sorry about that, it was probably still open from when I came in."

Shrugging her jacket back on, Max felt slightly less exposed than when she was in her tank top. Alec turned to her, resting his back against the door and surveying the damage to his apartment. It wasn't bad except for the dent in the wall and the overturned coffee table. "You do know how to make an entrance."

Back stiffening, Max defended herself as she moved to right the coffee table, even looking at it making her feel slightly nervous for a reason that she wasn't willing to define. "I was upset."

Moving toward the other transgenic smoothly, Alec inquired, "And now?" His gaze was less teasing and more predatory, remembering the terms of their earlier deal.

"I don't know." Max sighed, sinking back down onto the couch, the table momentarily forgotten. It was easy to see that she was confused, and Alec had to admit, he was confused also.

Shrugging, Alec attempted to move the topic away from such touchy subjects and toward lighter things. He never had been one for too much serious talk. "Ahh, well, I suppose I can collect my debt later. There are plenty of Jerry Springer marathons, right?" He caught her chuckle and shrugged, "What, they hit each other with chairs, that's television."

Max's initial response to this statement scared her, but she decided to go with her instincts anyway, tired of fighting them for every little thing. Every decision she seemed to make was life altering, but she was sick of stepping on eggshells to avoid hurting others. Standing up again, Max laughed, "You're so sweet sometimes," catching Alec in a surprised quick kiss, "but the rest of the time you can be such an ass."

Shrugging, Alec asked, "What did you expect?" Max just shook her head, and walked over to the television, turning it on and fiddling with it a moment before catching the right channel and walking back to Alec.

{-Mountain out of a Molehill-}

"They were what?!" came the slightly gasped reply from Maria as she tried not to choke on the sip of water she had so recently taken.

Taking a bite of her dinner, Emily took a moment before replying, partly to be sure that her friend didn't choke and partly to make sure that she didn't say the wrong thing and explain the event of earlier wrong. "Fighting." She reached across the table to pat her friend on the back, "Oh for God's sake, Maria, don't die on me, it wasn't like that. They were having some sort of contest, I think."

Regaining her breath at the thought that her daughter was not hurt in any way, Maria set down her glass of water firmly, as though it was the problem and not her own. "A contest... about what?"

Emily thought about this for a long minute, trying to call together all that she had seen and figure out exactly what it had all been about. But even after excessive brain scouring, Emily had no further ideas than she those she had had while watching the fight-like contest. "All I caught was that they were seeing who could pin the other the most... no I don't know why." She eyed Maria, as though her friend's raised eyebrow were a vast offence.

"Pin each other?" Maria repeated, trying to ingest this bizarre information without choking on air, as that would not give her such a viable excuse as the damned water had. "But why would that be appealing in a contest?" Thanks to her not-so-enlightening chat with Max earlier, Maria understood that Manticore hadn't exactly been a wholesome place to be raised, but this seemed a little much.

Shrugging her shoulders and taking a casual sip of her own water as if to say _see, it isn't that hard,_ Emily added, "Well, there were some sort of prizes for the winner. I guess that would be incentive."

Leaning forward from her seat across the table from Emily, Maria tried not to sound too scandalized as she asked, "Prizes? What kind of prizes?" it was only too clear to both women what kind of prizes would be expected.

Again Emily shrugged, leaning back and slouching against the couch as if to make up for Maria having leaned forward. "I don't know," she couldn't help but admonish her friend, "and neither do you, Maria, remember that." When her only response was a sigh, Emily did add, "They seemed a little, embarrassed when I came in though, and kind of cozy."

"Cozy like in Logan Cale's bedroom, like I told you about?" Maria asked, raised eyebrow firmly back in place and all notions of dinner momentarily forgotten.

Giving up her charade, Emily sat up straighter and set her water glass down, "No, not cozy like that! Comfortable cozy." She figured that it was all right to indulge in gossip if it was about one's children, but Emily still felt squeamish about the whole issue.

Recognizing from long years together that this would be as much as her friend would say, Maria turned back to her dinner and took a bite before mercifully changing the subject, "Speaking of cozy, this place looks very nice, I'm amazed how you've fixed it up already!"

Smiling gratefully at the ill-disguised change of topic, Emily took a second herself to survey how nicely her apartment was coming together. The walls were still bare of decoration and items were stacked away too neatly for someone to have lived there long, but the living/dining room was almost looking lived in. "Ah, well, the advantages of having a son to move around the furniture." Emily paused, considering this, "Although, I'm sure your daughter could do just as well."

"Well, yes, actually, but that's beside the point!" Maria sent a quick prayer of thanks to Logan Cale for securing both herself and Emily with such nice little apartments until they could figure out what they were going to do with themselves.

Accidentally echoing her friend's thoughts, Emily continued the conversation, pointedly ignoring how Maria had suddenly drifted out of it. "I've been thinking that we should try to get in touch with our families, discreetly of course, and see what's what with them."

Maria snapped to attention at this and tried not to look as though the idea had been flitting around her brain for days now. She coughed discreetly, in an attempt to seem less scandalized, "I doubt my family even has any idea where I've been, I haven't talked to them since before... since before."

Nodding, Emily kept her expression one of practiced calm. She didn't know much about Maria's childhood life, as it hadn't been something her friend wanted to discuss, and Emily herself wasn't inclined toward talking about her own. "Then it seems like we'll have to rectify that, Maria. You know, leaving out the part about being escaped from a mental institution."

Both friends laughed tersely at that comment, trying to relax and go back to their dinner, leaving anymore planning for after they found out what was what.

{-Cat Burglars-}

Leaning in toward the other transgenic with obvious intent, Alec joked as loud as he dared, "Cat got your tongue, Maxie?"

Taking a quick side-step-hop to avoid him, Max hissed back, "You stay away from my tongue. Or don't you think I get that there's enough feline DNA in you for you to consider that ample motive to... I don't even want to know." It was the most she'd spoken in the last half hour, arms crossed firmly over her chest, tongue darting out to lick her lips despite herself.

Trying not to be distracted by said tongue that had just briefly slipped into his view, which Alec was sure she'd done purely to antagonize him when words couldn't damper his enthusiasm, Alec forced himself to pay attention to her demeanor instead. He sighed, "Still mad at me, huh?"

Raising an inquisitive eyebrow that he was even asking such an obvious question, Max tried hard not to be fooled by his innocent look. Alec knew damn well that she was mad, and she was firmly in her right to be so. "Words cannot even come close to expressing how much I hate you right now."

"Hey," Alec argued back amiably, knowing that her mood was more for show and nerves than any real animosity, "I won fair and square. If you weren't prepared for your end of the deal then you shouldn't have agreed to our bet."

Slightly louder than she'd intended, Max hissed, "Fair and square?! Alec, that was hardly-" she took a forced breath as there was a creaking of floorboards below her, both transgenics easily swinging up to a handstand on the next ledge. "Fair," she finished; feeling robbed of her tirade by the whisper necessity brought it to an end with.

But Alec had already swung back down over the ledge, noting that their opponent was finally out of sight. He motioned up the quick hand signals of the plan, just incase Max was suffering delusions of anger and was planning on something stupid. When a quick nod was his reply, Alec silently lifted the window open and dropped into the now empty room.

With one last suffering sigh, Max swung down and rolled through the window, landing gracefully on her feat where she knew the boards wouldn't squeak. She strode forward, quick but silent, determined to get this over with as soon as possible. She reached the target of the room and hurried over.

Alec, meanwhile, was already sitting at the writing desk where an unnecessary chair stood, scribbling hastily away in a perfect imitation of Max's handwriting. He tried hard to keep the grin mostly off of his face when he turned to Max, knowing that as enjoyable as it would be, now was not the time for a brawl between the two.

Dropping her burden into a nearby hamper haphazardly, Max turned and regarded the last part of the plan with her first twinges of amusement. She motioned, _1... 2... 3..._ and both transgenics took graceful leaps at the bed.

She ducked into a roll, turning herself about and he ran over her and up the wall to use it as a turnaround point. Before the noise had even had time to register with the occupant of the building, they were both up and out the window, pausing only briefly to balance on the ledge before scrambling up and over the roof to the safety of the next building over.

Where Alec promptly collapsed into a fit of laughter, as Max actually paused to offer a small grin, now that she was done with her part of the deal. "Oh God," Alec complained, happily able to use the natural volume of his voice again, "that was too priceless."

Suddenly concerned, Max leaned over the other transgenic, demanding, "What did you put?"

Waving her off and ducking away from the threatening foot that came his way, Alec defended himself quickly, "None of that now! I only said, and I quote, 'Not even Original Cindy would stoop to a pastel room, and she's a gay woman. You might want to burn them, especially now.' That okay, your mightiness?"

The dry monotone in which the recital was delivered was enough to make Max laugh finally, as she was relatively sure that he wasn't lying and figured it was nothing so bad that Logan couldn't live with it. Besides, they had only been there a second or two, what could Logan possibly think would have happened? "Mmm," Max nodded, "just so long as you keep your part of the bet when I whoop your ass next game..."

"Yeah, yeah, gotta beat me first."

{-Voices From The Past-}

One hand clenched tightly around a slender piece of paper which was clutched tightly to her chest, while in contrast the other hand shook so badly that it threatened to drop the phone which was lightly pressed to her ear.

Room for one deep breath, enough time for the thought to _just hang up_ to appear at least a dozen different times, and then it began to ring.

More nerves, more time to question, and only the supporting hand at her back kept her from hanging up right then and there and never using the number on that wisp of a paper ever again.

Too soon there was a soft click of the phone being picked up on the other line, so very far away both by time and distance now, and a voice that was achingly familiar answered. "Hello?"

It was unlike her to be so nervous, the one who had volunteered to be the first to call, the one who had so rarely hesitated in what she wanted before, no matter who it hurt. A soft nudge at her back forced her to speak just before the person on the other end was about to hang up. "Dad?"

The intake of breath on the other line was so great that it was audible not only to Emily, but also to Maria, standing much farther from the phone. There was some background noise then a much louder click as the phone was shifted to speaker mode and a woman's voice was apparent. "Emily, is that you?"

A nod, then a slightly cleared throat when she remembered they couldn't see her, hadn't seen her, not in so long. "Yeah, mom, it's me."

There was a jumble of words and chaos from the other line that took a moment to settle. "Emily..."

"It has been so long..."

"We'd all but given up-"

"Don't say that John!"

"No, no, of course not."

Finally, there was a pause, full of over twenty years of pain, and then her mother spoke again, "We're so glad to know that you're all right."

Emily dearly wanted to explain. To say how stupid she'd been, how at fifteen the only option had seemed to run away after her older brother's death, how she'd been so depressed and had hoped that being away from all the pain would make everything better. How Manticore had made everything worse. She settled for something far lacking, "I didn't know how to get in touch with you before." It was mostly true.

There was a click again and this time it was her father back on the phone. Gruffly he began, "Doesn't matter right now. Do you need money, a ticket home, a sector pass, anything?"

"Actually, dad, I think it is better that you come here." Deep breath, squeeze Maria's hand because she understands for the most part, "There's someone you're going to need to meet. You and mom."

"Right. Where exactly is here?"

{-Phoning Home-}

It was much later that night before Maria picked up her own phone and began to dial a familiar number. While Emily's parents had moved, Maria's had stayed in exactly the same place and the numbers seemed to burn her fingers from recognition.

Emily was mostly calm now, having gotten off the phone before breaking down into tears, which Maria had gladly calmed and comforted. From what Maria understood, Emily's pain was linked with guilt over having left her home.

Things were simpler but so much more complicated for Maria. Far from leaving voluntarily, she had become separated from her parents on a trip and, left with no funds or contacts, been making her way in the harsher city until she could afford to go home. Gradually it had become livable, as she'd discovered just how long it would take to get home.

She'd been afraid to call; afraid to watch her parents and little brother spend so much money to come get her. Resolved that she would get back on her own two feet, prove that she wasn't a baby anymore.

What Manticore had offered had seemed a mostly quick solution to her monetary problems. A couple months in exchange for enough money to get home and actually contribute to her family for once. Only she'd never gotten out of Manticore's buildings and asylums.

Deep breath again, bad memories pushed aside, wait for the phone to answer in a room that she could still picture from many years ago, though she doubted that it was exactly unchanged.

Ring... Ring... and... "Hello?" A male voice, definitely not that heavily accented one of her father, someone unfamiliar.

She was unsure of what to do, what to say. Opted for a politeness belaying the longing and familiarity that boiled up in her guts, "Hello. Are mister or missus Rodriquez in, by any chance?"

"Who wants to know," suspicious, telemarketers were obsolete since the pulse and rarely did families in her rural area get phone calls from strangers.

 _Best to explain that I'm not a stranger then,_ Maria decided quickly, no matter if the person on the other end of the line was a stranger, no matter how long it took to get through to her family now that she'd gotten this far. "Maria."

And despite the fact that she didn't recognize the voice of the person on the other end of the line, he immediately recognized hers and in place with her name, everything fit. "Maria! Oh, Lord, Maria! It's Andre!"

Suddenly it clicked into place for her as well, causing tears to spring to her eyes. Andre, her little brother, obviously a grown man now, of course he didn't sound at all the same. "Andre," it broke her heart to know how much of her baby brother's life she had been forced to miss.

"Maria, hold on, I'll go get momma and poppa... just hold on..." His footsteps scurried away and Maria fought back her own tears realizing that they were probably very afraid that she would go away again by some other accident, before they could get to talk to her again.

And she resolved then and there that she would have back what Manticore had helped to take from her. She wanted her family, wanted her mother, father, brother, and wanted her daughter. She wanted Maria back.

{-Mousetrap-}

A soft knock on the door went almost unnoticed in the face of the noise on the television. Luckily, transgenic hearing could distinguish between real life and television and the knock was heard.

With a muffled curse, one of the occupants of the couch disentangled himself from the blankets, grabbed a last handful of popcorn, and stood up to answer the door.

The knock was just starting to repeat itself, when the door swung open and Alec gruffly demanded, "Whaddya want?"

Stunned in the presence of possibly the most expressive that Logan had ever seen Alec, he lowered his hand and motioned to the bag he was carrying. "Umm... I was wondering if we could have a word?"

Rolling his eyes and eating a few more cornels of popcorn, Alec nodded, "Yeah, come on in. We were just watching some pre-pulse TV," and Alec stepped aside from the door, waiting until Logan stepped through and then promptly closing it with a bang.

Logan took a few steps inside and noted that the television was indeed on some pre-pulse reruns. There was a shift on the couch and the blankets moved, revealing a slightly frumpy Max, who yawned and inquired, "Alec is this shit still on? How long exactly is a Jerry Springer marathon?"

Shrugging, Alec locked the door firmly and moved around Logan and in front of Max to shut off the television, ignoring her startled complaint. "I don't know, until they find something worse to rerun?" stealthily, he moved to grab the ancient looking bag of popcorn, but Max yanked it away from him. Sighing, Alec announced, "Logan's here to complain about his room."

That got Max's attention enough for her to release her iron hold on the delicate popcorn bag, which Alec quickly swiped. She paused only for a second to glare at him before turning toward Logan and offering an apologetic smile, "It was all Alec's idea."

This time it was Alec's turn to complain, before Logan could even get a word in. "Hey!"

Suitably confused as hell, Logan interrupted the bickering transgenics by dropping the bag containing his blankets with a loud thump. When they both turned wide-eyed expressions on him, he began his diatribe. After all, he hadn't trekked all the way to Alec's apartment just to stand around like an out-of-place lamp. He'd come to be a talking lamp. "Would one of you please explain what happened in my room, and why exactly I need to burn all my bedding?"

Ever ready to start in on Logan's flaws, Alec began, "Well, first, there's the coloring. I mean, pastels? Please, I'm pretty sure that nobody's stooped to that in our combined lifetimes..."

Having stood up fluidly and silently, as Alec had begun his rant, Max now stood next to him and smoothly elbowed him in the side. Hard. "Alec, shut up."

Rubbing his side and resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at Max, instead Alec settled for pouting ever so slightly. "What? He asked!"

"Oh yeah, that's the mature response." A patented roll of the eyes, "Didn't Manticore put any grown-up genes in there?"

Seeing another argument fast brewing, Logan decided now was the time to add his own two cents. "And that inappropriate note in my room was also such a stunning example of maturity," for added emphasis, he reached into his coat pocket and removed said note, waving it at the two transgenics.

"Look, nothing happened, and it was stupid and _we're_ sorry." Max tried her best to be sincere and Logan looked to be buying it.

Recognizing that this was as close as he was going to get to... _anything_ , Logan nodded and backed toward the door. He stopped briefly to pick up his bag of laundry, "Right, so now that we're done insulting my taste in blankets, I'm going to leave. I'll thank you both to stay out of my room in future, as this is the second time you have caused chaos in it."

That said, Logan beat a hasty retreat before his brain imploded from the arguing and... _Flirting?_ transgenics. He did not want to think about the implications of Max napping through some stupid television show at Alec's apartment.

As soon as the door shut behind Logan, Max rather unexpectedly turned on Alec, "God! This is all your fault," she grabbed a handy pillow and tossed it at his head. "Jackass."

"My fault," Alec exclaimed incredulously, "my fault?! I'll have you know that this is all Logan's fault. We were having a good time, and then he comes and now you're throwing things at my head!"

During this newest argument, they'd inched closer to one another. Max yanked the popcorn back from Alec and flopped down on the couch, snuggling into the blankets.

Alec just stared at her in disbelief.

Rolling her eyes, Max nodded back toward the television, "Are we going to finish this," she glanced at the clock, "eighty-six hour marathon or not?" She motioned to the television, "Oh, and turn it back on sometime between brooding and sitting the hell down, okay?" She smiled sweetly.

"Sometimes I really don't get you."

{-New Arrivals-}

The occupants of the car were cramped, tired, and the long checkpoint line to enter the sector was making them all just a tad miserable.

It was further proof of why the US had never fully recovered from the pulse; there was absolutely no encouragement for commerce of the traveling kind and few people wanted to brave the sector checks or live in decrepit cities, unless they had to. Of course, getting out of cities was no easier than getting in, so the general population tended to stay a few sector checks of where they were born and raised.

As the car inched along at a pace that made them envious of snails, Katherine Montgomery reflected that travel post-pulse had slowed to an agonizing crawl, the estimated journey time more than doubling. Nervously, Katherine checked her watch and shared an uneasy glance with John, who was not so much driving as going nowhere.

With the time getting later and later, farther past the time they had said they would arrive, John and Katherine shared an unspoken sentiment that the object of their journey was less and less likely to be there. That was if the checkpoint ever started moving.

It had been so long since they'd seen Emily and her contacting them now was so unexpected that both John and Katherine had a hard time grasping the reality that she'd be waiting in Seattle for them.

Mercifully, at just about the point where Katherine was considering walking across and abandoning the car for lost, the pace picked up a bit. As they got closer to the desired search and interrogative questions, the cause of the delay could be seen.

Someone had evidentially tried to ram the checkpoint and been less than successful, judging by the dented bicycle and man on the ground being swarmed by sector policemen. Trained in the new and savage third world that America had become, both Katherine and John flinched in sympathy for the fairly old man and then promptly turned their eyes back to the road.

Only a few cars later, Katherine and John found themselves coming to the mandatory checkpoint stop. The overly edgy sector police swarmed the car, shining flashlights in and demanding sector passes. It was apparent that the elderly man's attempt at ramming the checkpoint was ill fated for both himself and those trying to get through legally.

But Katherine was nothing if not prepared, at least for the less surprising facts of life, and she quickly handed the sector police a ready-made packet containing the work IDs and specially commissioned sector passes for both her and John.

After shining the flashlight into the eyes of Katherine and John several unnecessary times, just to prove that they could, and repeatedly asking the same questions of destination, where they were coming from, and reasons for travel, the head sector policeman nodded gruffly. He handed back their important papers and motioned his men back, ready for the next car to interrogate, "All right, you can go. Have a good stay."

He couldn't have been less sincere if he'd tried. But Katherine and John were less than inclined to worry about his sincerity, and happily drove into the first corner of Seattle, one step closer to reaching the mysterious figure of Emily.

The remaining checkpoints gave them little hassle, owning neither the fault of being the first guard of the once grand city or of a potential security infringement to put them on edge. Suddenly, it all seemed to go very fast, and before Katherine or John knew it, they were cautiously driving their way toward a not-all-that-run-down apartment building. The meeting place Emily had given them.

Excited and well aware of how late they were, the car was quickly parked, and Katherine and John hurried in the building and up the stairs.

Two knocks later, the door swung open to reveal a woman with a nervous smile and the unmistakable features of their daughter. Even over twenty-years later, it was definitely Emily, in the flesh, there, waiting for them.

Trying to keep her jaw off the floor, Emily took in the sight of her parents, the aging that more than twenty years had put on them, and suddenly her nerves and their lateness didn't matter. Her reasons for having left so many years ago didn't matter. Taking a deep breath, Emily swung the door open wide and stepped back to invite her family back into her whirlwind life, "Hey there... mom... dad... why don't you come in for the family reunion," desperate to ease the tension, she added, "the neighbors, you know, just love to stare and gossip. I think."

Not needing a second invite, John and Katherine stepped through the door quickly, and Emily barely had time to lock the door before she was engulfed in a huge hug from both her parents. Apparently, the issues of years ago didn't matter to them right now either.

"Oh Emily, it's so good to finally see you again. We've-we've missed you so much," Katherine gasped out, all her carefully planned speeches and words flying out of her head.

Chiming in, John added, "Look how grown up you are, how different!" Then he pulled back, dragging Katherine with him to let Emily breathe and guide them toward the couch before old emotions became too much.

Nodding helplessly and wiping at the tears springing to her eyes, Emily nodded, their faces bringing all the good times back, "I've missed you too. You have no idea how I've missed you." And she forced herself to sit down in the face of the two people who had kept her sane when Manticore wanted her crazy, knowing this was just the start of a long catch up and explanation process.

{-Family Ties-}

Staring at the three people on the other side of the door, Maria had a fleeting feeling of panic. _What if this is all a mistake, and I can't explain properly... what if..._ Refusing to go there, Maria forced herself to smile and stop that train wreck of thoughts before it happened. "You made it, good. Come in?"

If her parents or Andre noticed that her hostess skills were sorely lacking, or the anxiety behind them, they said nothing. Instead they stepped into the new apartment, all their attention focused on Maria. As if by mutual decision, it was Maria's mother, Theresa, who spoke first, waiting until Maria had closed the door and turned toward them. "It has been so long..."

What could she do but nod? Maria was too busy staring at her little brother, now a grown man of _twenty-six, twenty-seven?_ She couldn't remember and the idea that she couldn't remember something so simple finally brought the tears to her eyes. "I can't believe you're all here... I've missed you so much..."

Stepping into the void of silence was her father, Ricardo, standing for a hug as he hastily assured Maria with his words, "We've missed you too; we've all missed you too. Your brother and mother and I, we've never stopped thinking that you would find us again."

The unspoken question hung like a guard in front of the door of reunion, not unexpectedly. Deep breath taken, Maria began her side of the story, "When I got separated, I was so nervous, so worried. I was going to get a small job and come home on my own money..."

Before it was uttered, she hushed her father's protest, already knowing that he'd never admit to any money problems. Staring with unusual fascination at her hands, Maria continued, "Before I knew it, I'd met these kids, and I fell in with entirely the wrong crowd. I was young, I didn't know anything, and instead of helping me get home, by the time I realized it, we were halfway across the country in the wrong direction."

Hurriedly, she rushed through the next parts; "I didn't know how to get in touch, to get home, so I thought I'd take a quick job. I got caught up in the wrong places and then the pulse came and I just kind of got lost. But now I've been found, and I had to get in touch, to see you all."

It was a decent explanation, as truthful as it could be, and as vague as it had to be. Now was not the time for secret government conspiracies that Maria herself didn't fully understand yet, despite being trapped in one for over half her life.

As soon as her rushed explanation was finished, Andre spoke up, cutting off the tearful exclamations that their parents were about to make. "Past is past. Welcome back to the family, big sister."

Maria was the one to start crying and exclaiming, "So much has changed!" As she pulled her brother into the hug she'd been longing after for twenty long years.

Gruffly, she pulled back, and received equally fierce hugs from each of her parents before everyone settled back down. Gasping for air around her tears and emotions, Maria couldn't help a small laugh at how happy this all made her. "Tell me everything, everything I've missed, tell me everything."

"It was lonely, without you," Theresa spoke up, "but we managed. Your father kept the family store afloat through the pulse, and your brother got a good job with one of those overseas companies, at a local base."

Sensing his mother about to go into a diatribe of the last twenty years, Andre jumped back into the conversation excitedly, "But there's time for all the details later, momma, now that the whole family is back together, there's all the time in the world for the details. Why don't we go out to eat, have a nice family dinner, and let the details attend to themselves?"

Andre moved to get up, determined that the past would only bog the newly united family in the sadness and regrets that he could see forming on his father's brow, but one look at Maria's suddenly crestfallen expression and he stopped. "Maria?"

"We're not," Maria paused and looked up at her family, "all together again, that is."

Sensing how troubled this made her, Ricardo gently asked, "Andre hush, yes some details later, but some now. What is it, my Maria?"

Fumbling over her words and thoughts, Maria shakily began, "Before I got lost the second time, I... that's why you all had to come _here_ , see... since her and I have just been reunited, I knew that you all had to come too and..." she stopped, and forced herself coherently together. It would do no good to sound crazy now, when she most needed to be sane.

"Not all the family's here yet... you haven't met my daughter."

{-Antics, Games, and Bets, Oh My!-}

Halfway across the room with a full pitcher of beer, Original Cindy spotted them. Not that it was hard. As a matter of fact, Original Cindy would place money that half the bar was giving their attention solely to Max and Alec, which was saying something at this time of night.

Sighing, Original Cindy began to maneuver toward the front of the room to rescue her friends from themselves, ignoring Sketchy's protests about the beer pitcher taking a side trip. His opinion didn't matter since she was paying, what Max and Alec were doing to get into trouble, did. The gathering crowd worried her.

For their part, the two transgenics were oblivious to the worry they were causing their friend. Fresh out of a one-hundred-and-two hour Jerry Springer marathon, and then a subsequent full day of sleep, the X5s were at the mercy of more energy than either knew they possessed.

They had brought their bicycles, to the joy of the crowd and dismay of the management, who felt that their large 'no more bike tricks' poster was pretty effective. To make matters worse, they were doing bicycle tricks to the tune of a mock Jerry Springer episode, complete with typical insults that, thankfully, couldn't be heard clearly over the ruckus of the crowd, and the throwing of beer pitchers.

Seeing the management rallying to kick them out, Max took stock of the thrown money on the floor, bets on who would kill themselves first, and screamed out, "Hey, barkeep, let's have a round for all these fine people," waving a handful of the lost bets to prove that she was serious.

As the accompanying roars of excitement screamed out, Max and Alec gradually stopped their tricks and hurried their bikes back outside, before reemerging in an attempt at nonchalance. They almost made it back through the crowd when they turned to find Original Cindy shaking her head at them and motioning toward the table where Sketchy sat. "You two, get yo fine asses in those seats, so that OC can get a decent explanation out of you away from this damn commotion."

Shrugging sheepishly, Max and Alec followed Original Cindy's directions. Unable to keep quiet until they reached the table, and wildly gesticulating Sketchy, Alec jumped in, "It was a dare."

Smirking at him, as if to say 'you're gonna get it now,' Max elaborated, "One that Alec dared. All his fault-"

Cutting in smoothly, Alec pointed out, "Hey, it was your suggestion, I just polished it."

As Original Cindy raised an eyebrow at their metaphorical finger pointing, Max hurriedly continued, "We were watching Jerry Springer, this pre-pulse show."

The two transgenics shuddered at the thought, and Alec finished, "A lot of Jerry Springer. It was the marathon that never ended."

"And then, we were kinda tired and zoned out from the TV, so we took a cat nap-" Even Max winced at the bad pun.

Not missing his cue in the slightest, Alec teased, "For a day-"

Flashing her partner in crime a stony glare, Max continued on as though she hadn't been interrupted. "And then we thought, what the hell, a reenactment would be fun-"

"But not just any reenactment, something with," Alec paused dramatically, "flare-"

Rolling her eyes, Max concluded, "And that's how we came up with this."

As they reached the table that Sketchy was all but jumping on in his excitement, Original Cindy let out a long-suffering sigh and demanded, "Boos, you two done yet?"

"My God, man, next time you two are planning a bike-in against the rules, call me! You know I've got mad skills!" Sketchy was righteously indignant; both incredibly mad and thrilled that this random event had occurred.

Seeing Max and Alec about to launch into further details of their recent exploit, Original Cindy cut them all off, motioning to Sketchy with one perfectly manicured fingernail, "Boy, sit down and be quiet, don't you encourage them."

True to form, Sketchy gulped, reigned in his excitement, and sat back down. He wasn't stupid enough to piss off Original Cindy when she was so obviously irritated. He gave one last, "Wicked cool," and then closed his mouth firmly.

Allowing a slight smile to her face, as she finally set down the beer pitcher, Original Cindy admitted, "That was fun, hell'a stupid, but funny..."

Before she could continue, Max and Alec had jumped up, sharing twin grins that couldn't mean anything good. Max pouted, "Ahh c'mon now, OC, it wasn't that damaging. Look, they didn't even throw us out."

Straightening his jacket and pouring a glass of beer, Alec added with a wink, "And now, we'll retire to the pool tables to take advantage of our new popularity and beat someone other than Sketchy."

Sharing a confused look, Original Cindy and Sketchy watched the other two members of the table leave quickly. After a moment to pour more beer, Sketchy asked, "You think something's up with those two? They've been acting awfully weird."

Nodding, Original Cindy watched the loud pool game that was just starting, with the obvious winners laughing and leaning on one another. "I'd say so, Sketchy. Boy, if I didn't know better, I'd say our old carefree Max is back," she squinted at the scene before her, "and she's flirting with Golden Boy."

Sketchy nodded slightly, examining their friends more closely. There was a contemplative silence, as they watched Max and Alec easily tag-team and defeat several pool opponents.

When the fifth win came, Alec laughed and spun Max up into his arms, proclaiming cheekily, "Ladies and gentlemen, my trophy."

As expected, Max cuffed the back of his head, muttering, "Smart-Alec!" and demanding to be let down.

Putting up a mock hurt look, Alec did as asked and released Max back to the ground, obviously whining. The crowd around them had mostly dispersed with complaints about lost money. Laughing, Max stood on her tiptoes and gave Alec a quick peck on the lips, murmuring, "There, I kissed it better, now stop being a baby."

From their rather inebriated spots at the corner table, Original Cindy and Sketchy shared a glance. With an only slightly slurred voice, Sketchy declared decisively, "Original Cindy, my friend, I'd say they are more than flirting."

Laughing, Original Cindy nodded, noting that their friends were now involved in a quiet discussion, seemingly oblivious to their observers. "About damn time those two figured it out, Sketchy, about damn time."

{-Crash and Burn-}

By the time the two transgenics walked in the door, they were a little bit inebriated and a lot richer thanks to many more winning pool games. It seemed that the patrons of Crash would never learn.

However, it was getting late, and they'd decided to call it a night after what had turned into a long conversation with Original Cindy and Sketchy. They'd been caught in some more than friendly positions by their friends, and had gotten the joy of a long relationship chat.

Hell, neither Max nor Alec had been entirely sure that they were having a relationship, despite several not so little kisses and one long Jerry Springer marathon, until Original Cindy had pounded them both on the back and exclaimed 'about damn time.'

While Alec was busy shutting and locking the door, Max tossed her jacket on the couch and headed into the kitchen. She rummaged through the shelves quickly, looking for any edible food, and returned triumphantly to the couch with a box of crackers. "I better take you shopping soon; we're running out of food."

Rolling his eyes, Alec came to sit on the couch as well, grabbing the remote out of Max's iron clutches and absently flipping through TV stations. "I'm perfectly capable of going shopping without a chaperone."

Throwing the box of crackers at Alec's head, which he deftly caught before any impact could be made, Max whined, "But you'll probably steal something."

A snort followed this statement, "Why, Maxie, I didn't know you cared."

Max just grabbed the remote out of Alec's hands and settled it on one channel, as opposed to the constant flipping. Grabbing an ever handy blanket down from the back of the couch and snuggling in, she began to wonder if maybe Alec had liked the idea of multiple TVs a little too much. "Move over a bit."

Looking down at the person that was completely at home on his couch, Alec couldn't help but ask, "Does Original Cindy even still know that you're her roommate? You haven't been home in, what, a week?"

"Original Cindy has some special girlfriend - I don't think she minds," Max stated matter-of-factly. "Besides, I come back in the mornings."

Feeling the need to point out that this wasn't necessarily true, Alec added, "Except for the Jerry marathon."

For the first time in well over a year, Max felt herself relaxing, as she gently rested her head on Alec's shoulder. What had seemed so complicated between them had suddenly been perfectly clear to her when explained by Original Cindy and even Sketchy. She couldn't help but wonder how everybody else had known about them before they did. "Now you're just being difficult."

"Well, yeah," Alec laughed and watched happily as Max graced him with a small smile for admitting the truth.

Speaking of truths, he was still a little unsure about them. That there was a _them_. He'd been pretty sure that something was going on but hadn't wanted to risk pissing Max off by asking, then her friends had cornered them and she'd admitted – almost easily – that it was definitely something. "Max, you asleep?"

Bright eyes looked up at him, and it was obvious that Max was very much not asleep, despite how still she'd been a moment ago. "Nope, shark DNA and all that." She couldn't help but tease him, "Not gonna be one of those boyfriends that falls asleep on a girl are ya?"

Alec wasn't quite sure what came over him, but suddenly he had a crushingly strong urge to prove that she was his. Yeah, he knew she was teasing him, but this was the Max he'd fought so long to see, the one that was carefree and playful and _his_.

Before she could wonder about the spark in his eyes, Alec pulled her toward him and kissed her, the type of passionate, all consuming kiss that was purely Alec. And even though she was sure that she hadn't drank that much, Max felt her body starting to tingle in ways that made her do stupid things like pull Alec closer and kiss him back. Because even though she was sure that they were _something_ , she wasn't sure if they were this kind of something.

Pushing the blanket off of her and the couch, Max slid into Alec's lap, and he tightened his grip on her. When they broke apart, Max couldn't help but reach up and ruffle his hair, and Alec laughed shakily. Still holding her tight, even as he seemed ready to pull away, Alec forced himself back to reality and questioned, "Max-"

But looking up into those clear hazel eyes, and the nervous emotions swirling in them, Max was suddenly sure. Maybe they weren't perfect, and maybe they weren't perfect together, and God did he drive her crazy sometimes, but they were definitely a _real_ kind of something.

Quieting his doubts before he could voice them because she knew they were there - and hell if she didn't have some herself - Max leaned down and kissed Alec again, kissed the doubts right out of him. And at that point, as hands roamed and eyes locked, neither would even remember that the television was still on some sort of infomercial.

{-I Don't Wanna Get Up-}

Thanks to shark DNA and the exorbitant amounts of sleep that Max had gotten in the last couple of days, she had plenty of time to sit and think. At first she'd been confused, but watching Alec sleep had calmed her.

This wasn't some heat related thing, and that made everything easier. Yeah, it put them in a new place, but when Max thought of all the Manticore battles she'd fought, all the turns her life had taken, she decided that she was perfectly capable of dealing with it. This time, she wasn't alone.

And, as Alec finally began to wake up, hesitantly glancing Max's way, she asked the one thing that she hadn't been able to figure out. No matter how many hours she was awake. "How – when did we end up in bed?"

Alec looked startled and still a little sleepy, so Max raised her eyebrow at him. Convinced that, no, he was not still dreaming, Alec looked around, and then down, a small frown creasing his forehead. He shrugged, "We're in bed? Hmm, I have no idea."

Laughing slightly, Max nodded, they were definitely in Alec's room, on his bed. And transgenic memory be damned, the details were fuzzy, at least, the 'which room we're in' ones. "Must've been one fun night then," she paused, forcing a straight face, "shame I don't remember it."

For a few seconds, Alec simply stared at Max, jaw slightly slack. Then he sputtered, jumping to a sitting position and nearly falling off the side of the bed in the process, "What – you-"

When she realized that Alec was reasonably close to cursing obscenities while hopping out of bed to save his virtue, Max rolled her eyes, "Relax," she admitted, still holding back laughter, "I was joking."

Hand over his heart; Alec glared at Max, "Not funny," he informed her. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Maybe," Max drawled lazily, "I'm paying you back for all the grief you give me." Raising an eyebrow to prove that she had a valid point.

Recovering quickly from the early morning shock, and noting that Max teasing him wasn't nearly his worst fear for this conversation, Alec elaborated, "Ahh, but Maxie, if I had a heart attack, I wouldn't be able to function up to speed anymore."

His hands dived under the covers and Max squirmed away, grabbing the pillow from behind her head and batting him with it. "Oh, I think you're functioning just fine," she paused to sink back down so that she was lying on the bed again, "And how bullet wounds manage not to bother you - and yet a little of my teasing is going to leave you a permanently damaged from a heart attack - amazes me."

Rolling his eyes and stealing the pillow from Max, Alec shrugged, "It could have been a worst case scenario."

"Pessimist," Max accused - all wide eyes and finger pointing.

At this, Alec couldn't help but roll his eyes, "Yeah, Maxie, I'm the pessimist." After a second, she had to give it to him, and they both shared a small laugh.

Glancing over at the clock, Alec couldn't help but wonder, "You think we've been fired yet for the whole, not showing up to work thing?"

Stretching languidly in the bed, Max presented Alec with a cheeky grin, offering sarcastically, "Don't worry, honey, I'm sure you'll come up with some brilliant cover for us," then, seriously, she added, "besides, we told Normal we were taking family leave."

Sneering at her teasing, Alec wondered if maybe unleashing the more carefree Max hadn't been the wisest move. Ah well, he figured it would keep him on his toes at least. "I was thinking of getting up, but then I remembered, we have milk and... milk in the fridge. Oh well."

Considering this, Max couldn't help but realize that Alec was right, since they'd never made a shopping trip the night before, there definitely wasn't food in his apartment, and actually getting up and going out seemed a little much. "We could actually get food?"

As if to further reject the idea, Alec snuggled down back in bed, looping one strong arm around Max's shoulders and pulling her down with him, against him. Once they were both cocooned in the blankets, Alec whispered against her ear, "But I don't wanna get up. It's all comfy and warm."

Wrapped tightly in Alec's arms and the blankets, Max couldn't help but agree.

{-Family Reunion-}

Sitting side by side on the couch, legs touching but the rest of their bodies rigid, hands clasped firmly in their laps, Alec and Max had never looked, or felt, less human. They looked like stiff, perfect dolls that were soldiers... perhaps there wasn't a more appropriate word for how they looked than like _transgenics_. And emotionally, well, sharing twin glances out of the corners of their eyes, Alec and Max reflected that they were feeling far from human.

The idea of having a mother had been easy, the desire to have one, to meet their own. But any moment now there would be a large extended family pouring through the door. Grandparents, they were part of the alien institution of a real family. It was a little scary, a little curious, and really, really confusing.

Max stiffly reflected that she did feel like a toy soldier, though in the current setting she imagined a toy soldier would have fit in better.

Not for the first time, Alec swore to himself that he was going to write a guidebook for transgenics on "the real world." God knew that somebody needed to make one. Internally, Alec spared a moment to huff at claims that he wasn't a man of the people. People needed guidebooks.

Footsteps sounded in the hall and Alec and Max kept their gazes locked firmly on the door; bodies stiff, faces in an indifferent mask, minds nervous. The door to the apartment swung open and Emily and Maria entered, looking slightly nervous. Behind them there was a chorus of voices chattering nervously, but as soon as the rest of the entourage entered, they too fell silent.

Standing to attention almost instinctively, the two transgenics looked over the new people in the room. There was a man, assumedly the uncle that Max had been told of, and two older couples. It occurred to Alec and Max that they knew few people of this age group, people who had lived the majority of their adult lives before the pulse; their eyes lacked a certain bitterness that was common to the younger populous of America.

Stepping boldly forward into the void of silent assessment on all sides, Emily smiled weakly and made the necessary introductions, motioning to each person in turn. "These are my parents, John and Katherine, Maria's brother Andre, and parents Theresa and Ricardo." She hoped desperately that this had been a good idea. "And this is my... son... Alec-"

Seeming to wake from her own trance of anxiety, watching the younger and older generations eye each other, Maria finished by motioning to Max, "And my daughter, Max."

Forcing a mostly genuine smile, Max relaxed her stance slightly and intuitively reached out to grab Alec's hand in a death clutch. "Hey," when she spoke, Alec likewise relaxed, nodding his greeting.

As soon as Theresa heard Max speak, realized that they were actually here with her daughter and granddaughter, she felt herself wiping tears of joy from her eyes. A look around revealed that everyone but the grandchildren had eyes wet with tears. There were none of the doubts that she had expected, Max looked like Maria, looked – felt – like family, and she looked lost.

The four grandparents shared glances that only those of their generation could understand, having struck up a small conversation on the way over, and stepped forward almost as one, to embrace their grandchildren.

Before Max and Alec had any idea what was going on, they each found themselves being held in firm but loving hugs, with practical strangers murmuring little endearments of love in the way only grandparents can. Alec lost his hold of Max's hand and turned to the side to catch her eyes; she looked as lost and amazed as he felt.

Soon, the grandparents withdrew, wiping at the tears from their eyes and laughing slightly to themselves at the family they'd found. Everybody seemed to be speaking at once, but finally Maria got in words over the clatter, "Why don't we all sit?"

Andre hung back a moment, nodding at a niece that seemed closer to his age than his sister, and muttered, "Seems like a good idea."

Unable to suppress the thought, Max wondered if this was what real families were like, all loud and happy. She wanted to ask Alec's opinion, but then remembered that he knew even less about this whole thing than she did. Max cast a worried glance at him; Alec seemed shocked but okay. "How," she fumbled for something to say, "was the trip?" She left the question open for anyone to answer.

John spoke first, muttering that "It was fine..."

Settling down on a couch with John, Katharine added, "It doesn't matter, anyway."

A few seconds of silence followed, while everyone tried to get their thoughts under control as they settled down and tried to get comfortable. It was Ricardo who finally spoke what everyone's thoughts mirrored, "We just want to get to know you," noting the way Alec and Max shared glances, he added, "both of you, all about you, everything we've missed..." He choked off the end.

Pulling off a grin that looked genuine to the Ordinaries, Alec asked, "So, I guess a 'hi, how are you,' isn't gonna cut it?"

Shaking her head, Katharine pronounced, "No, no it most definitely isn't..."

Again, everyone was at a loss for what to say first, and it was Andre who bridged the gap in the two families, "So, what's Seattle like. Where do you both work?"

Alec suppressed the urge to say that they were cat burglars, with emphasis on the 'cat.' Max shook her head at him, seeming to know what was on the tip of his tongue. Now was not the time for Manticorian discussions, if ever. Slowly, testing out the conversation, Max explained, "Seattle's... complicated... but it is home now. It can be lots of fun, I guess, but the sector checks are a hassle."

Knowing more than ever just what a hassle the sector police could be, – they seemed to especially frown upon running the sector checks on motorcycles – Alec added, "And we both work at Jam Pony, it's a messenger service..."

Maria and Emily breathed deep sighs of relief that all government conspiracies seemed to, for now, be a topic that wasn't open for discussion. Right now, catching up on twenty years would be more than enough for everyone in the room to handle.

{-The Eye of the Storm-}

When the door finally shut, Max reflected that she hadn't felt this tired in a long time. She wondered half-heartedly if her shark DNA would take pity on her and let her sleep the next week away.

Locking the door firmly, Max turned back to the couch, where Alec was sprawled out, looking rather exhausted himself. Of course, Max didn't blame him, she'd had no idea how emotional a family was, or how much she found herself wishing she'd had one. "Hey there."

Alec opened one eye and glanced at Max, a hint of a grin on his face as she walked closer. "Hey."

Noting that Alec didn't seem to be up to nearly his standard of Smart-Alec energy, Max kneeled down next to him, tentatively putting her hand over his, "You okay?"

Exhaling a shaky laugh, Alec shook his head, "Nope. You?" He looked down at Max and wondered if she'd felt as out of place as he had. It was kind of like being a specimen again, examined on all angles, only the glances had been kind, and that had made it even worse.

Biting her lip slightly, Max remembered why they'd decided to meet everyone all together, so that there would be at least one other person who understood. She had to remember that she could talk to Alec about this and he wouldn't think that she was crazy. "I – it was amazing, you know? They didn't know us and yet they loved us and... I remembered what it was like and could only think of having known them sooner..."

Cutting herself off, Max rested her head against Alec's stomach, on the verge of tears and refusing to let them fall. She wouldn't cry over Manticore, over what they'd done, not again.

Resting on hand on Max's back, since the other was in her grasp, Alec nodded even though he knew she wasn't watching him. Gulping slightly, he began, "It was weird having them there... hard, too... pretending... fitting in? They're so..."

Muffled from against the fabric of his shirt, came Max's reply, "Human."

Slowly, trying to puzzle out his reply because that had been exactly what he meant, Alec responded, "We're human too."

"I didn't feel it."

"Me either," they were both silent for a minute.

It was something that would be hard to explain to a normal person. It had been different from dealing with Maria and Emily, harder. There were so many emotions that the others had expressed, that had seemed to fit, but simply weren't there. Like looking inside yourself and finding empty spots where you knew something should go, but it was blank.

Confusing, watching everyone else know their place while being an outsider to the customs. Worse still, there had been new pain in avoiding the Manticore memories that came at every turn of the conversation. Sharp pain from the stark realization that they had been deprived of something integral to being human.

"You were there longer," hardly a new realization, but with a new sting attached to it.

Keeping his eyes closed and head back, Alec nodded, "Yeah."

"It was-"

Cutting her off, jaw clenching, "Yeah," it didn't need to be said.

Sitting back on her heels, so that she could look at Alec directly, Max clenched Alec's hand tighter, waiting until he opened his eyes and looked at her. Winced at the bitterness and pain that she knew must be reflected in her own as well, and swallowed down the lump of admitting weakness. "I'm glad you were there."

Resting her head back on Alec's stomach, Max closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind, knowing that she was unlikely to sleep anyway. After a moment, Alec let out a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah," his hand rubbing absent circles on Max's back.

They stayed that way for a long time, well into morning. Alec's hand rubbing Max's back, and her hand clasping his, eyes closed.

{-Five More Minutes-}

It was only because Max was already awake that she heard the slight buzzing of her pager from across the room, where it was still lying in her jacket.

For a moment, she considered not getting up. It had been so calming just lying there, feeling not alone - for once - and she had been nervous at how quiet Alec had been. She was loathe to break away from him.

But, it wasn't an option. Either the buzzing would leave her already awake self irritable and questioning, or it would wake Alec up. While normally she'd welcome an opportunity to share the misery, he'd looked so lost last night...

Using all her transgenic stealth, Max lifted herself onto all fours, gingerly brushing aside the arm half draped over her. She slid down into a silent roll, catching her jacket and dashing out of the room, incredibly thankful that Alec was, all things considered, a pretty heavy sleeper.

When she saw the number, she stopped. Set the little piece of plastic and wires on the table, her half-donned jacket dangling from her arms.

Logan.

He phoned three times while she observed the pager. Three times while she didn't answer - until he gave up. While she wondered what he wanted, and realized she didn't want to know. While she considered leaving the pager there and curling back up on the couch. While she remembered belatedly that she did probably owe Logan an explanation for once.

Max grabbed her pager and shoved it into a jacket pocket, going back over to the couch. Not bothering to be overly careful, she crawled back on top of Alec, letting him shift groggily under her weight and blink up at her. A half smirk, "Ahh, c'mon, Maxie, five more minutes."

Rolling her eyes, Max couldn't help but wonder whether watching too much TV really would rot out his brain. They were transgenics, so it was unlikely, but TV had been a favorite pastime of the generation that had let themselves get pulsed. "Don't worry, you get to go back to sleep. I'm going out, didn't want you to think I'd left without saying goodbye."

Looking a little more awake, Alec shrugged, eyes teasing, "What, were you afraid that I'd think you'd been captured by one of the many secret agencies after us and go on some half-crazed mission to save you?"

Laughter. "Something like that."

Alec wrapped his arms around her waist, not concerned by her elbows balancing all her weight on his chest. He wondered if getting Max to eat real-food-other-than-milk could be considered an Olympic sport. "How do I know this isn't all a dream?" Raised eyebrow.

"Careful soldier-boy," she smoothly moved her arms down, between his, and broke out of his embrace, landing in a half crouch, safely out of grabbing distance. "You're getting paranoid again."

Watching Max walk out of the room with a parting roll of her eyes, Alec laughed, "Something like that."

{-The Cure All, End All-}

As the two people stood across the threshold from each other, they had never felt so final. Max remembered that they hadn't even spoken in weeks, not since the sobbing phone call over the cure and Alec's prank. Realized - with a twinge of guilt - that she hadn't even thought about Logan recently.

It seemed like their little non-relationship had been over for ages. Everyone else thought so too. She still cared about Logan... God she hoped he felt the same, otherwise... "Hey, got your page... figured I'd swing by."

Logan stepped out of the doorway, and she walked in. Still startled by the news of this morning. Still startled by how young she was. "Good, it's good you came. We have lots to talk about."

Max looked up, down, and, finally, at Logan. Looked him in the eyes and nodded. "Yeah, we do."

"I guess," he seemed awkward, unusually so for the computer hacker, "I guess I'll start... You know I'd been working on getting cure information out of Manticore archives. I found some... well, I found it. The cure."

As Max stared at him wide-eyed, in an unusually open expression of shock, Logan hastily continued, "I realized then, in that rather late way that I seem to realize everything... I realized that it doesn't matter."

Sharply, Max looked up, unblinking eyes focused on Logan as he struggled to continue. "I thought, I thought that everything that had been wrong, felt wrong, was because of the virus... We had our chances, and we missed them. It feels like..."

Softly, Max interrupted, recognizing how hard it was for Logan to be explaining all this, "Like our chance has been over for a long time?"

Breathing out a sigh of relief that Max understood, had felt it too, Logan nodded. "Exactly. I think I finally understood when I met Maria," he paused, shaking his head at Max's astonished look, "No, not that little fiasco... Just, I don't think I always realized how young you are, Max - you've always been so mature."

Ruefully, Max shrugged, seeing how sincere Logan was being, it reminded her why none of that had ever mattered before. "Part of the territory, I guess."

Looking straight at her, Logan felt the need to clarify. "I still love you," saw her wince, "just maybe not as-"

There was that look again, the one that always reminded Logan that no matter how many years Max was lacking, she more than bested him in experiences, and not nearly enough of them nice. Max offered a sad half-smile, "It was always so much easier when we were just good friends... I think, maybe it would have been better if we'd just stayed that way."

Feeling tired and suddenly old, Logan nodded. Wondered why all that wisdom that was supposed to come with age had just disappeared when he'd met her. "Yeah."

Knowing that her number was up, Max took a deep breath, looked up at Logan, "I've been seeing Alec..." Winced, waited, wondered if it sounded as harsh outside of her own head.

"Oh..." Logan sucked in a breath and realized he'd known this was coming for months, "It-" _of course it hurts_ "it's okay... hell, we've been done for a long time, haven't we." _Doesn't make it easier._

Max just looked down, hands folded nervously in her lap, playing with the zipper on her jacket. She wished that they'd been able to work out when it had still been possible; at the same time she was glad they hadn't. Everything always had been so complicated. "Logan," she reached out, and then faltered, unsure what else there was to say.

Logan stood suddenly, tired of how painful, how serious and complicated every conversation with Max became. Determined not to let this one end like that, not to let her walk out of his life again. "So, I got it, you know," saw her look up out of the corner of his eye, "the cure. Figured it wouldn't be any good to have a friend that was afraid to come within a foot of me."

When he turned, they were both smiling, just about as happily as was possible for them. Max took the offer as what it was, back to just being friends. Wondered if it would ever be easy to be just anything with them. "Well, good, we don't want one little hug killing you."

But she didn't hug him. Recognized it as too soon, too strange. Didn't touch him. Just nodded, offered her little half smile again, "Bye, Logan," she paused as the mask that usually hid her emotions wavered, but the sad little smile persisted, "gotta jet."

She waited until Logan replied, his own voice forcibly cheery, "Bye, Max," before she turned out the door, closing it and walking away from the apartment, down the stairs instead of the elevator.

It had never sounded so final.

{-Gone, but Not Forgotten-}

After all the stress of initial meetings and closing notes (Logan and her still hadn't mastered the art of uncomplicated friendship), Max had found the longest stretch of calmness that her life had ever afforded her. Two whole weeks free from government agencies, near death experiences, and complete with minimal nagging from Normal, who seemed undeniably relieved to find their excuses had held solid with family to back them up - the thought of firing his "golden boy" had apparently been terrifying.

A paranoid person would assume that life could only get worse. Luckily, Alec and Max had managed to have inverse spells of panic and balance each other out for the most part.

One particularly pessimistic stint had half convinced them both that the whole "family" thing was a set up before they decided that the weirdness of grandparents had to make this "normal." Or, at least, not bio-engineered to mess with their lives.

Of course, their life was anything but a fairytale and soon enough it was time to ship their extended families back home. Both sets of grandparents still worked and only so much time could be afforded for a vacation.

Now, standing outside of a half-rundown apartment building, Katherine worried if she'd asked enough questions and Theresa wondered if she'd hugged the "children" enough. They'd both come expecting a gap, meeting their grandchildren twenty years too late, but there was something that always seemed a little off somehow.

Still, as John and Katherine had discussed, they'd take anything that they could get.

Andre had already said his goodbyes, making Max and Maria promise to write, and was off organizing the return trip. He felt confident but slightly unnerved in seeing his sister again and meeting his niece, like they had connected again and anything else was overkill.

Just released from a weak hug by Katherine and John, Alec struggled somewhere between avoiding his emotions and trying not to slip into blank soldier mode. "We'll visit," he hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. Somehow, staying out of the public eye was more important right now.

Blissfully unaware of the conspiracies and cover-ups that had been just around every bend, John replied with confidence, "Of course," while Katherine moved to hug Emily.

Not soft enough for transgenic hearing to miss, Katherine offered, "You could still come with us..."

In her mother's grasp, Emily smiled but shook her head, resolute, "Not now. Later, maybe."

Gently, Max hugged Theresa and Ricardo, wishing that they wouldn't leave but not about to suggest it. She'd never felt safer, despite the complications, than with a big family around her. Family, like Manticore, only so different in all the important and good ways. Never one to be selfish, Max squashed the urge. It wasn't safe for them to stay here, any of them. "I'll miss you."

Half-heartedly, Ricardo looked over Max's shoulder to a teary-eyed Maria and entreated, "Come with us, Maria."

Maria and Max locked eyes. This offer had come before and, as much as Max wanted Maria to take it for purely unselfish reasons, Maria had refused, claiming she wasn't leaving her daughter so soon. "Poppa, it's decided already."

With a sad smile, Ricardo released Max to go stand back with Alec, and Maria fell into her place, hugging her parents tightly and whispering promises.

From slightly apart in presence and worlds apart in mind, Alec and Max watched their mothers and grandparents say their goodbyes. It still seemed somewhat surreal and so overly emotional. Pulled at thoughts they couldn't sort out, even after two weeks of trying.

All too quickly, the whole busy process was over, with Katherine and John boarding one car while Theresa and Ricardo got into another with a bashful-looking Andre driving. Waved goodbyes and half-silent "I love you"s, and the cars were driving off.

None of the other occupants of the neighborhood stirred, uninterested in the affairs of others.

Maria and Emily smiled and cried.

Alec and Max stood, still wondering if all this was normal and wishing they'd understood better. Suddenly feeling bereft and sure that maybe it was complicated, but family was something that neither planned on giving up on.

After a moment, silently, all four walked back inside, to mull over the last couple of weeks in private.

{-Off To See The Wizard-}

For the occasion, even Max had deigned to dress up. She'd borrowed one of Original Cindy's skirts, which was actually of a decent length – even if it had some hell'a high splits. Alec had cleaned up as well and, thanks to some good cat burgling and a bit of a shopping spree, Emily and Maria were dressed up in a modernly refined way.

They were off to dinner.

The joys of the pulse included the fact that some prospered even through it. While most of America was suffering through a new third-world status, some of the rich had managed to stay afloat. And so had some restaurants.

Nestled securely in the richer sectors, a few decent restaurants survived, and Alec and Max were determined to go to one of them with their mothers. Decided that they needed one really good memory to wipe out all the others.

Reservations were made, the precious old Babylon 5 footage was fenced; the dinner was on. In respect to the ordinaries, they'd even parked at Logan's, so that the walk would only be a couple blocks. Of course, that was enough.

Max stopped dead, motioning Emily and Maria to stay still. Alec cursed under his breath as he took up a fighting stance. From just about every corner of the street, familiars emerged. One of them was holding a heat sensor. "Look what we've got here. A couple of transgenics and a couple of ordinaries."

Smirking, Max shot back, "And a big bunch of scum. Guess which one I'd rather be?"

Two of them launched themselves at Alec, who ducked back so that they were on the same side of him and kicked out. Faster than a normal eye could see, one familiar was on the ground – thrown out of the fray – as another moved to take his place and the rest advanced on Max.

Alec ducked low; Max jumped high, both of them darted careful glances around the street as they fended off the familiars. Catching a brief moment, Alec called out, "I see London, I see France..."

There was only time to curse the skirt mentally before Max was pushed down. Exploding up, Max threw several of the familiars off of her and ran up the side of a nearby building to flip over the other and break his neck on the down swing. Flashing her underwear was the least of her concerns. "Ass." She missed Alec's 'well, yeah,' look.

Two of the thrown familiars got up, along with the one Alec had tossed out, cracking their necks and moving toward the two defenseless women between the transgenics.

One grabbed Maria, intending to break her neck when Alec, full transgenic ramming speed used, bowled him into. The two went tumbling away as Max angled closer toward the mothers.

Emily screamed. Both Alec and Max looked up in time to see her go crashing into a nearby garbage can. Maria moved to help but was caught round the feet by a familiar with broken kneecaps, and was pulled to the ground.

"Alec," Max called out, indicating a familiar that was coming toward him, even as she spun another over her head and through the wall of a building across the street. She started toward Emily and Maria, but was caught in the back by a vicious kick and stumbled down.

A yelp in the other corner signaled that Alec had broken his arm, but he simply rounded back and kicked his attacker in the shins. Then he changed hands and continued his attack on the other two.

Spinning up to avoid a kick in the stomach, Max regained her footing and aimed a high roundhouse kick at the familiar's head. It was caught but, instead of spinning out of the grip, Max brought the rest of her body up, her foot meeting his face and her fists his body as she swung crashing to the pavement.

The familiar flew back to be impaled on metal spoke. Max climbed back to her feet to take care of the last familiar heading toward her mother, as Alec was engaged in a tumble on the ground with the only other familiar still capable of causing damage.

Alec growled, "Just. Stay. Down..." as he pummeled his opponent.

Knowing that the longer they were there, the greater the chance was of more familiars appearing or the others recovering, Max fought against her last adversary with as much vigor as she could muster. He swung at her face, but she tilted to the side just in time, the blow missing her nose and catching her in the cheek instead. Only minor cracking resulted.

In retaliation, she caught him with a punch to the jugular so hard that even for a familiar, he wouldn't be getting up again. Blood gurgled and he fell.

Breathing heavy, she looked up. Alec's enemy seemed to be no more as he stood, popped his arm back into the socket, and squinted at the broken bones. Both of them moved toward the two women who were now sitting up, just outside of the immediate battle area.

Max got there first, "Are you okay?" Inspecting the bruises, small cuts, and splatters of blood for any major damage.

Though both women looked shocked and frightened, there didn't appear to be any excruciating pain. It was Maria that spoke up, as Emily still looked slightly dazed from her fall. "I-I think we're all right... Are you?"

Worried motherly glances searched Max and Alec's eyes, but the two transgenics were more than proficient at hiding traces of pain. Alec smiled reassuringly as he looked the other three over, purposely keeping his damaged arm relaxed at his side. Noticed Max pause as she stood. "Nothing to worry about," he shrugged, "just a beginner's round, really."

Now Emily spoke up, as the two mothers moved to stand, "Who were they?"

Darting a careful look around them, Max decided to forego explanation for the moment. "Why don't we get home and look at those cuts... Then we can talk about it."

Still shaken, Emily and Maria nodded, moving to follow Alec and Max, who did their best to keep their injuries to themselves. It would heal as long as there was no more immediate danger – no need to worry their mothers further.

{-In Never-Never Land-}

Holed up in Logan's bathroom, Alec and Max were attending to their wounds. Logan, having seen them come home in such condition more than once before, had helped them attend to their mothers and then calmly offered to drive the older women home – leaving Alec and Max without that added stress.

All considered, the damage wasn't too extensive. Alec had definitely had his arm broken in two spots but, as long as he left it alone, it would heal in a couple of days. Aside from a few nasty bruises that weren't quite ready to fade, the rest of him was fine.

For her part, Max's upper cheek was swelling and turning a rapid assortment of pretty colors. There looked to be a fracture, but it wasn't severe. Along her spine, several large bruises had darkened but there wasn't any deeper damage. Coming out of a fight with familiars, both transgenics considered this only superficial damage.

Kneeling carefully, Max surveyed Alec's torso for damage. Gently, she probed some especially dark bruises, but no ribs were broken. Satisfied, Max went back to her makeshift cast for Alec's arm. Real casts did little good, as transgenics didn't break in the same way that ordinaries did, and Alec would have most movement back within a day or so anyway. Max's plan involved keeping everything tight and still, while leaving enough give so that Alec could move it around. She tied the last bits of bandage wrapping in place, thankful that Logan had learned to stock an industrial sized first aid kit.

As soon as she was finished and Alec had tested it out to his satisfaction, he motioned Max to turn around. Gently, he helped her lift her shirt and bra off, mindful of her back and his arm. Max braced her arms on the sink while Alec tended to her back. He cautiously probed the worst bruises, but most of them had missed their mark. Picking up the gauze, he began to wrap her lower back, using the opportunity to check her ribs for any damage.

It took a bit longer than normal because of Alec's arm. Max had time to look up and catch them in the large mirror. At first, the swelling of her cheek, which was now a particularly unpleasant shade of purple, distracted her. Then Alec stood behind her, eyeing her back and his wrap job, and she had a moment to observe them both.

Naked from the waist up, they both looked fairly battered. Still. "Alec," she whispered, tilting her head to the good side and smiling slightly, amazed at the effect.

Having been rather engrossed in the efficient silence they'd formed, Alec looked up from his inspection. He still wasn't convinced that the wrappings were secure, especially with the way Max moved. "Hmm?"

Straightening as best she could, Max reached back and caught Alec's hand in hers, pulling it around her waist. He still looked a little confused in the mirror, so she elaborated. "You know how we wanted tonight to have one real perfect memory before everything got messed up again?"

Carefully wrapping his undamaged arm more securely around Max, Alec was starting to get the picture. "Hey, there's where you bit me," a smirk was added.

"Hold me."

As Max leaned into his one-armed embrace, Alec took her cue and watched them in the mirror. Sure, they were banged up to hell, and it was a little awkward looking since he was only using one arm and Max was trying not to make any movements of her torso at all. But... "This is it."

They lapsed into silence again, staying there for a moment to engrave the image permanently. Then, Alec ducked back down to finish wrapping Max's back and she was forced to lean back down so that it was secure. Quietly, "If something had happened tonight... to them..." The 'them' was obvious.

Brow furrowed, Alec kept his attention on Max and his head below the reaches of the mirror. He wanted to be reassuring, but the same thought had been plaguing him. Images of Emily hitting the trashcan and Maria hitting the ground. "I know. Even if they'd caught one of us..."

Straightening slightly, Max shivered and wrapped her arms around her chest. It wasn't cold. "When's it going to stop? White and the familiars... they all just keep coming."

Finally done with her back, Alec stood and wrapped one arm around Max, pulling her close again. She'd been running from Manticore for most of her life – he'd only just escaped it. "We'll be there. And there's Joshua, Original Cindy, even Logan. When's your dream team failed you yet?"

Breaking away, Max nodded, pulling her shirt back on and gathering her bra and Alec's shirt up in her arms. She moved toward the door, turning the lock. A sad glance back at Alec, "Are we counting?" then she swung the door open and tried to brush off the thoughts that brought up.

{-A Cold, Hard World-}

The ride home had been nothing if not harrowing. Not to insinuate that Logan's driving was anything but perfect, or his manner anything but calm. No, the nerves came all from Maria and Emily and the evening's trials.

By the time they departed Logan's company, at Maria's apartment, both were convinced that the two transgenics were much more injured than either had first suspected. Brave soldier masks didn't make up for a mother's intuition, and their own injuries were enough to cause doubt to Max and Alec's protestations of being fine.

Still suitably shocked, Maria quickly invited Emily to stay the night with her – neither particularly wanted to be alone. Such a violent encounter had been the furthest from their minds until that night – though from the subsequent explanation provided, it seemed that Alec and Max dealt with it frequently enough.

A new layer of guilt was taking its time settling in, as the two women began to get more of a sense of their children. They were soldiers for a reason: the battle was far from over.

Gratefully accepting some ice from Maria, Emily tried to find voice to her thoughts. "After all that... Do you think they're really okay?"

Not questioning whether her friend was asking about mental or physical circumstances, Maria joined her on the couch and answered. "I think they will be."

Seemingly satisfied, Emily nodded. "To see those... men... and to think that they go through it so often..." she could feel the familiar chains of guilt and wonder settling on her shoulders. Right next to the tragedy of Ben. "They're so young, Maria, and we..."

This time, Maria didn't wait for Emily to finish. Instead cutting her off with much the same sentiment, "And we're supposed to be the protectors, but what good were we? They were more worried about us." She could still see Max coming toward her, only to be caught by one of those 'familiars.'

"I look at them," Emily shook her head, "and I want to kiss it all better. Make it all go away. But I don't even know what it 'all' is, or how I can try to make it better, when it's all my fault."

Wincing, Maria couldn't help but agree, "We didn't know. And now we don't know them." Bitterly, she stood, pacing gently in response to her own soreness and sick heart, "Hell, we don't even know this world, Emily. We've been locked away – being instead of living."

For along time, there was silence from the two women. Both were lost in thoughts and imagined ghosts of pains. It wasn't the first time they had discussed all this, but it was the first time they had seen – first hand – what this life really was like.

Eventually, Emily spoke up. Quietly, but decisively, "We have to learn how to live in the world again, before we try to understand theirs."

"You mean; we need to go away so that they don't have to look after us."

It wasn't a mean reply, only a statement of the facts, and so Emily treated it as such. "I mean that we need time to discover ourselves," she smiled slightly, "and they need time to learn about each other."

At this, Maria nodded. Both women were well aware that there was a romance brewing between Emily's son and Maria's daughter, and Maria wasn't naïve enough to think that having long-lost-parents around helped matters. "I'm afraid that we'll lose them."

Slowly, though, the idea was taking hold, edging its way into plans and thoughts. Almost catching herself unaware, Emily realized that she'd already decided – sometime after explanations, sitting in that car, wondering what was really going on. "If we stayed, the loss would be worse."

{-For the Best-}

Sleep had offered all too brief a reprieve when tapping on the door broke the relative silence. Gently, Max slipped out of bed, first sitting and then standing, cautious with the still tender state of her back. Once she was vertical, though, it was fine.

From just about as far on the other side of the not-large bed as was possible, Alec had already donned a T-shirt and was struggling with his jeans – testing the limits of his injury with calculated movements. "We really need a bigger bed."

The lament was not lost upon Max, who had given up altogether on the idea of bending down for her shoes, and was buttoning up one of Alec's shirts instead of her own. "Mmm, only when we're all beat up." Ignoring the snorted reply, she came around to the other side of the bed, her jeans slung across her arm, and reached for Alec. "I'll help with yours if you'll get mine."

Alec shot a meaningful look toward the hallway door, but Max's raised eyebrow reminded him that without pants on neither of them could very well be expected to answer the door. "Coming," he called, and the tapping ceased.

With a good amount of maneuvering, and the added flexibility of a few hours to heal, Alec and Max managed to finish dressing. They were both feeling better but, since this day was as likely to be jam-packed as the last, there was no need to strain anything.

It was Alec who reached the door first, asking who it was and swinging the door open with his good arm, while Max poured herself a glass of milk and wondered if they might attempt dinner with their mothers again tonight.

As half-expected, the door opened to reveal Emily and Maria – looking wide-awake and not at all surprised to see the two transgenics less than at par. Maria spoke up first, hesitantly, "Good morning," while Emily eyed the evidence of last night's fight on Max and Alec.

Shrugging at the concerned looks being passed back and forth between the mothers, Alec led them in to sit down. "Morning. Don't worry – it's not as bad as it looks."

Replying quickly, Maria and Emily managed the small talk quite admirably - assuring the transgenics that they were both fine, whatever that meant, and asking various little questions. It was Maria who finally hit upon the subject of their visit, "Emily and I have made a decision; we're leaving Seattle."

Startled, Max nearly choked on her milk – a small gasp escaping when the motions to still the choke too vigorously moved her back. Still, she recovered quickly. "If this is about last night... it's... we're fine, really."

Emily cast nervous looks between the two transgenics and Maria. "It is and it isn't."

Seeing Max about to object again, Maria hastily continued Emily's train of thought. "We're a hindrance to you both right now." Again, she cut off the protest before it could be uttered, "Let me finish. You're so busy trying to protect us," she noted Max's downcast eyes and Alec's set face, "that it's leaving you vulnerable."

This time, silence met the statement. Obviously, Alec and Max wanted to protest but, after the night before, they weren't quite sure what to say. Finally, Alec began, "There's always someone to protect..."

And Max continued, "We'd still like you to stay, both of you. There hasn't been enough time..."

When Max trailed off, Maria stood quickly and rushed to envelope her long-missed child into a hug. If Max stiffened, Maria let it go. Emily motioned Alec to sit down and gently patted his shoulder, explaining the other part of their reasoning. "It's not goodbye. We'll come back when things are calmer... it's just... we need time to find ourselves again. You need time to find yourselves. There's no point all holding on to each other if we don't know what we're holding on to."

Face carefully blank, Max pulled away from Maria, "When are you leaving?" She offered a small smile of acceptance, but it didn't stretch beyond her lips.

As Emily gave Alec a quick hug and then stood, Maria stepped back to join her, explaining, "There's a bus leaving in twenty minutes. We're going to head east for a while and see where it takes us."

As best they could, the two transgenics attempted to express their feelings. How happy they were to have spent time with Maria and Emily, how sad they were to see them leave.

Neither mentioned the little flickers of thought announcing, _things may never 'calm down'_ and that this was going to make their jobs easier. The X5s needed to lie low for a little bit, sort out a mode of attack against White and the familiars, and they couldn't do that with Maria and Emily there.

The clock edged toward goodbye, and so they all said it, and all hoped that it wouldn't be the last time. With final hugs and kisses, Maria and Emily stepped out the door to go explore their lives.

{-Parting Shots-}

The new bed was definitely an improvement. Healed body parts made it even more comfortable. So comfortable that Max had managed a nearly full night of sleep, shark DNA and everything. Stretching luxuriously, she rose up on one elbow and leaned over Alec, one hand idly running over the marks on his chest as she watched him sleep.

Always ready to spoil her moment, Alec cracked one eye open, watched her hand a moment, and then grinned, "Watch the bite," his hands were sneaking up around Max, to pull her down more fully on top of him.

Purposely ignoring both Alec's comment and her change in position, Max winked, "Don't be such a baby," and continued to trace the teeth indents in his skin.

Letting go of her to stretch, his arms above his head, Alec attempted to wiggle away from the fingers ghosting over his skin. "Hey, it's a wound."

"You liked it."

His laugh sent shivers down her spine and, sure enough, Max was soon wrestled to her back, her legs tangled with covers and Alec. Mischievous glint in his eyes, which made her know she was going to regret prodding him, Alec announced, "Only if we match," and bent lower over her, his lips tracing her skin.

Max was half considering a protest, when he bit. Gasping, as he let go and moved to survey the bite mark that perfectly corresponded to his own, Max forgot what she'd been about to say. Instead, "I think you forgot about one."

Laughing, Alec rolled back to his side of the bed, dragging Max with him. Casting an eye at the clock, he shrugged, "That comes later." Sensing Max plotting her revenge, Alec added, "Hey now. What will people think?"

"That they wish they were in your spot." Despite her comment, Max gave up her vengeance quest. There was plenty of time for biting later, and they did have to work in a little over an hour.

Astonished at the playful look Max was sporting, Alec exclaimed, "That was my line!" But Max had snuggled down against his chest, nestled against his fully healed arm. He tickled her, "No."

Her eyes remained shut, "What?"

"You don't get to wake me up and then go back to sleep!" Alec knew that he sounded grouchy but, damnit, his genetic cocktail didn't match hers, especially in the sleep department.

Turning to him, her eyes open, and looking wide-awake, Max queried, "I never said anything about sleep."

One eyebrow raised, Alec reminded her, "Work."

"I know."

The possible responses to that were overwhelming, but Max just rested her head against his chest again, listening to his heart beating and tapping the tune on his arm. Wrapping his arm more securely around her, Alec gently brushed her hair out of her face, from where it was curling gently.

He would never have thought it, but Alec was fine exactly where he was. After all, there was plenty of time and, with the new, larger bed, he was in no rush.

There was no imminent danger that couldn't wait a few hours, at least.


End file.
